.
| Hearsay: |
Two total jerkwads pontificating about blogging.
I’m not really concerned about the long form. People who like it will write it, publish it and find it. Bookninja will be part of that. What I’m concerned about is that major mainstream institutions (read: big papers, magazines, etc.) that are trying desperately to develop online followings haven’t figured out that the audience online doesn’t read the same way as the audience for print does. So you get these magazines and newspapers writing longish articles for blog posts, and people don’t get past the first paragraph. No wonder. If they wanted to read the paper, they’d go to the paper, online or in print. If you want an audience to read you daily for your blog, you have to write for a blog-reading audience. Seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve even tried to hand-hold some big markets through doing it and they just can’t seem to get away from writing journalism. Guess what? This isn’t journalism.
January 2006
December
2005
November
2005
October
2005
September
2005
August
2005
July
2005
June
2005
May
2005
April
2005
March
2005
February
2005
January
2005
December
2004
November
2004
October
2004
September
2004
August
2004
July
2004
June
2004
May
2004
April
2004
March
2004
February
2004
January
2004
December
2003
November
2003
October
2003
September
2003
August
2003
Bookninja © Copyright
The opinions expressed on this site are those of individual participants
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the site owners,
organizers, or other participants.
[powered by WordPress.]
June 26th, 2009 at 10:01 am
And it really helps if the comments are lively. That’s what gets me coming back to blogs.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:45 am
“This isn’t journalism.” Insert snob remark here. [Correction] Insert aging snob remark here.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Russell Crowe’s latest movie, State of Play, does a good job of poking a bit of fun at the bloggers who see themselves as real print journalists. The movie was kinda ‘meh’ but it was topical in a strange sorta way.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hey, Jerkwad: Who you calling Jerkwad?
Signed,
Jerkwad
June 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
This looks like quite the impressive exchange of ideas, but I tuned out halfway through the opening paragraph…
June 27th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Having just finished my first year as a book blogger for a big paper, I can say that the hardest part was giving up the just-the-facts-ma’am voice for one that moves closer to the snarkastic posts in Bookninja. You’re right, it’s a huge culture shift for us, and I just hope we can move fast enough.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Too long to read sitting at my desk. If I only had some paper I’d print it out and take it in the living room and sit on the couch next to the cat and read it without distraction…
Or take it to bed and fall asleep so that it will fall on my face and wake me up.
Or…damn, maybe I just should read it.
Mary
July 1st, 2009 at 2:28 am
I recently launched a blog site of books I am interested in. All posts contain only a small amount writeup on the books, because I think people get tired of reading long posts. And it seems to generate a modest following. One reader commented she likes it for being a “literary” blog which she says is rare. I don’t know if its a literary blog, not like BookNinja. It’s just my attempt to share books I like, and quite candidly, trying to experiment on Adsense earnings.
But if people actively discuss there, like they do here in Book Ninja, maybe it’ll really become a literary blog.