I wasn’t the only person to notice on Friday night that Possum, The Poll Bludger and Andrew Bartlett (among others) popped up on a new blog platform at Crikey. One take on this move from Duncan Reilly – writing at The Inquisitr – was that it constitutes “a welcomed step in legitimizing blogging in Australia”. From my point of view, that’s the wrong way round. I very much doubt that any of those bloggers lacked “legitimacy” – Possum’s performance in outgunning the GG crew in the pseph analysis stakes, The Poll Bludger’s hosting of a rolling psephological conversation and the quality of the informational and analytical blogging he does and Andrew Bartlett’s commitment to a transparent and open political debate all have that quality in spades already.
I think what’s more significant here is a recognition from Crikey of a shift from a relatively static form of internet publishing to a more dynamic and interactive one. It’s a better model in some ways than cherry picking bloggers to write static articles, because it encompasses the whole context of the form.
There’s obviously also a commercial element in the decision – frequently updated sites with lively and long comments threads multiply the page views and thus the advertising revenue. And, as with the general trend towards blog networks, it should be possible for Possum and the rest of the mob to earn a modest living from what they do without all the hassles of being their own advertising agent, and to concentrate on the content and the community without being their own tech support. What will be interesting is the degree to which there’ll be a crossover from Crikey “readers” to Crikey blog participants/commenters.
What does this imply for the independent blogosphere? I doubt that there’s any dimunition in independence – having written extensively for Crikey in the past myself, writing for them is very different than writing for the MSM. Having said that, I do think there’s value in preserving a space for blogs which don’t affiliate with other media organisations, and it’s not the sort of move I’d ever want to see LP take. I personally am not averse – as everyone knows – to the occasional gig doing something I consider to be different from the sort of blogging that I do here at LP, but LP and I are not synonymous. I think there’s a lot in the ability to post on whatever, whenever, without any editorial guidelines from above, and to get silly and anarchic from time to time, and also from the continuing engagement with a very site specific community. Part of the fun of blogging – and this is where amateur has its own original meaning and carries that connotation – is teh lerve and also not taking it all too seriously too much of the time.
For my own part, then, I can only offer lavish congratulations to Possum, The Poll Bludger and Andrew Bartlett.
Elsewhere: Lyn Calcutt at Public Opinion.
i.e. Comments is King ??
Not just comments, but frequent updates throughout the day. Crikey’s email is designed to be read once and once only – it’s still in the newspaper mindset, and I’m not sure that they’ve had huge success in getting their readers to spend a lot of time on the website. Having said that, the email format is/was part of the market appeal of the Crikey brand – the original selling point being that you’re sitting in your office getting super secret special info emailed to you at lunchtime. You know, from Christian Kerr
I’m not 100% convinced that a lot of Crikey’s demographic will/would take to a more web based and dynamic format all that well. But we’ll see!
And it’s also a conversation more than comments per se.
Congrats to all of them and the others who are about to join the Crikey network.
Yep to this, blogging is not a job, at least not yet – though I wouldn’t turn one down either, call me Rupert….or Eric! On second thought…….
Blogging is also an outlet for learning when I post, and for the most part I enjoy the reactions and additions to what I write, that’s the payoff for providing what is essentially a free service.
Mark,
context. I didn’t say these bloggers weren’t legitimate, nor would I. The context is in terms of blogging’s place in this country as a legitimate player in media and the mainstream.
I don’t disagree with you that there should always be a place for independent blogs, and that networks like this aren’t always the answer, but as we get to the end of 2008, the Australian blogosphere still looks like the blogosphere in the United States circa 2003. Throwing some money, support and hopefully extra exposure towards these blogs and bloggers may help blogging finally break out in this country, and that will be good for all of us.
Duncan, to clarify, another way one could look at this is Crikey legitimising itself in the eyes of independent bloggers.
Mark, Duncan, Crikey certainly did legitimise itself in my eyes with this move, I’d let my sub lapse for the past couple of years, why, because I didn’t think I was getting any real independent value from them.
For example, looking through their Blog Watch I still see a lot of imported American drivel and not much support of the the Oz blogosphere, it’s a small thing but something that helps make the difference, I think they should go one step further and make that an all Oz roundup just to spread the love a bit.
Phil, the blogwatch has got somewhat more Oz-inclusive since Sarah Stokely started doing it, and I was pleased to see Poss say when he announced his problogger move that he’d be engaging in more linky goodness and cross-blog conversations.
Btw, Duncan, I hear what you’re saying about what you intended, but I was sorta riffing off a possible construction that could be put on what you wrote. Part of the context for this is my own belief that the blogosphere doesn’t need legitimising by media orgs.
Not really fulsome I hope, Mark.
I think I misread these developments in the beginning. If it really is just taking advantage of a blog platform, with no involvement (editorially) from Beecher et al, then it will probably work out for the best. As independent entities, separately or together, these three have almost unlimited potential.
BBB
Independent as in independent of Crikey or similar multinational media empires, of course.
BBB
Oopsy, that’s a word I commonly misuse! I’ll substitute “lavish”.
Thanks BBB.
Bonus: FirstDog has a First Blog On The Moon there. And at least Crikey don’t lock away his work from un-subscribed eyes, just ‘kos they paid for it, so I’ll cut the bastards some slack legitamacy-wise.
Go Possum! (And Andrew and Poll Bludger!)
Mark,
agreed to a point. We don’t need it, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. I’m tired of rocking up to events and hearing media types bitch and moan about how bad blogs are and how they have no value. They’ve mostly moved past that in the US, it would be nice if we could do it as well.
In terms of Crikey, I had lunch with their web director Friday, great strategy and definitely nice to see Crikey moving into this area. Yes, it certainly gives Crikey some more legitimacy.
For example, looking through their Blog Watch I still see a lot of imported American drivel and not much support of the the Oz blogosphere…
‘Ken oath Phil! Here in Australia we are perfectly capable of producing our own drivel!*
*Not including Andrew, Possum and pollbludger in the drivel category – congratulations to them!