Erick Schonfeld over at Techcrunch gives a revealing insight into what it’s like making the shift from professional journalism to pro-blogging. His motivation seems to be that he’s trying to get some thoughts on the bench of what journalism is right now.
Media is changing—how it is produced and how it is consumed. The worlds of blogging and journalism are colliding
I’m feeling this too. The last ten writing jobs I’ve been commissioned to undertake have all been for online media. Print media jobs still pay better, but they seem to be drying up. Especially since two of the papers I wrote for rebranded themselves and cut down on Nordic news. Although I’ve been not been writing blog-posts, the kind of web writing I’m being asked to do is very influenced by blogging: editors want short and snappy pieces that come in at less than 500 words. There is no time for story-telling. It’s mostly reporting facts, providing analysis and getting the message through as quickly as possible.
Writing for the media or owning it?
Writing for the web still pays less than writing for traditional print media, but it’s catching up. Still, with sites like Techcrunch that started out as personal blogs establishing themselves as online media outlets capable of challenging dinosaurs like the New York Times for readership (see the Techmeme leaderboard), you might want to look more to owning the media, rather than serving the media. What I mean is, if you have aspirations to make your living as a journalist in 2008, maybe you should be thinking about starting a blog (or text-based web outlet!) for want of a better word. That’s easier said than done, of course. You need a viable niche, good web skills, SEO skills, and money to pay decent writers. Hell, you need to be a team! Fewer lone bloggers seem to be making it, as far as I can see, in terms of attracting a major audience. Outlets like Techcunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc, are thriving because they’ve got staff onboard to produce the copy.
More news, less time for newspapers
It’s not about writing more for online media. It’s also about consuming more online media. In the last year to eighteen months my interest in newspapers has dwindled increasingly as I’ve consumed more and more online journalism. Although I’ve been a massive consumer of the morning newspaper(s) all my adult life I now find myself wondering whether it’s time to actually stop subscribing and just stick to reading online. This winter, in particular, I’ve found myself delaying to go outside and get the paper, preferring to check my news aggregator for bubbles of interest amongst the feeds.
As to where this is heading, I’m pretty certain I’ll be canceling my subscription to Dagens Nyheter next time it comes up for renewal.
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