I’m bullish on blogging as a form of mass communication for the following three reasons:
1) Trend from offline to online: More readers are opting to consume information through their computers and mobile devices rather than by print. The structural shift has decimated traditional print and any organization who fails to adopt an online model. Newsweek magazine’s recent decision to go completely online is a great example.
2) From mass media to thought leaders: No longer do people want to just read the news, they want to get thought provoking analysis of the news. Readers now demand interaction with their authors. They want to feel more connected. We bloggers provide this connection through our voice and our inherent proclivity to respond.
3) Collaboration. Blogging can be one of the most competitive industries or one of the most collaborative industries. Barriers to entry are low and everybody can provide their two cents. Through collaborative organizations such as the Yakezie Network, we are able to effectively cross promote our content much more effectively than traditional media. All it takes is a link back and an agreement in most cases to use someone else’s content.
Given my optimism, I was somewhat hesitant about spending the day down at Stanford University’s Department of Communication as a blogger. Would they take me seriously? I remember getting made fun of in 2009 by a colleague for starting Financial Samurai. He was a prick who discredited my hobby as he pretended to type on a air keyboard and look all goofy during dinner. Three years later, he’s still slaving away at his day job so he can make fun of me all he wants!
Furthermore, what if the department saw me as an enemy? Bloggers are a crucial reason for the disruption and some might even say destruction of traditional media. My hesitation quickly disappeared after everybody I encountered at Stanford embraced new media and blogging as an acceptable form of mass communication. I don’t know why I doubted they would given they are a cutting edge university right in the heart of Silicon Valley, but I did. So for any of my fellow bloggers our there who might feel embarrassed about your hobby, be proud instead!
I met up with Peninsula Press editor and founder, Kathryn Roethel who gave me a rundown of the online newspaper. Kathryn was a 2010 graduate of the Masters program and decided to put into action what she learned in class. Peninsula Press runs on wordpress just like most of all our sites. Whereas most of our site’s only have one main content creator, Peninsula Press is like a mega blog with 20 staff writers and multiple editors. In fact, Peninsula Press is much like Yakezie.com where Members contribute their knowledge every so often. The good thing is, we aren’t graded!
THE CHANGES WE FACE
During lunchtime, I sat in on a Graduate Journalism Seminar that hosted public radio’s Julia McEvoy andKatrina Schwartz from KQED. At one point, they played a couple 25-33 second audio clips by various KQED journalists and asked us to provide feedback. The reporter’s voices had performance, with one man using the words “the end of an era” when referring to the proposed property build-out on tranquil Alameda island.
As a reporter, the use of the words “end of an era” are about as opinionated as reporters can get. Whereas if I were vehemently opposed to the housing construction, I’d probably use words like “corruption, greed, waste, government bureaucracy, the destruction of wildlife” and so forth to push my point after presenting the facts. In journalism, reporting the news is a way of bringing to light injustices. As bloggers, we not only report the news, we press on and tell readers why something is right or wrong.
At the end of the seminar, Julia mentioned KQED is trying various things to bring traffic to their website and keep listeners engaged during their morning commute. They have content partners and are even utilizing journalism students to serve as beat reporters. When someone asked what their biggest worry was, they said NPR’s potential to just create an app to allow their listeners to bypass KQED. Technology can help, but also disintermediate status quos rapidly.
Nobody came up with a viable solution to the NPR issue in such a short window. KQED pays NPR for their content, and in return KQED acts as their local content distributor in the Bay Area. Hopefully, avid listeners will then donate to KQED to keep them going. I wanted to share my advice, but I didn’t want to take any of the class’s time as a visitor.
Advice For KQED And Traditional Media
* Experiment with opinion. The reason why listeners keep coming back is because they identify with a person’s voice. I understand KQED’s listeners may be older or more conservative, but they might be underestimating how much opinion their listeners can take. In a world full of specialization, it’s very hard to be all things to all people.
* Build a brand. Besides opinion, there has to be something else that stands out when KQED is mentioned. When someone hears the word Yakezie, they should think of the words collaboration, community service, and a quality group of bloggers. FOX News, like them or not, has done an incredible job associating itself with conservatives. CNN, on the other hand, doesn’t stand for much at all. KQED needs to evoke imagery as soon as their acronym is spoken.
It’s no fun living in fear of what your largest client might do. As a result, media companies must not only produce unique content, but content which has an angle that makes people think long after consumption. Almost everything gets commoditized at some point. Building a brand will at least prolong life and hopefully allow management to pivot towards something new.
THE BLOGGER’S CHALLENGE
If a Comm professor reads this post, I’m sure s/he won’t be impressed with the quality of the writing or the article structure. When we don’t have grades or careers to keep us accountable, we tend to care less about the quality of content and more about whether we are getting our point across. What this article does have is a conversational style that provides an opinion. As bloggers without editors, we’ve got to create content, infuse our voice, and edit our work in a timely manner. For those who want to make a living blogging, we must then constantly work on the business aspect of our sites. Blogging isn’t easy!
Unfortunately, most of us are blind to our own writing and can’t see the mistakes that are so vivid to others! The challenge for bloggers is to raise our content quality to match the quality of a professional writer while keeping our voice. I encourage all of us not to neuter ourselves for the sake of appeasing everyone and our sponsors. Once we improve our standards, there’s no reason we can’t build great audiences that keep coming back for more!
START A BLOG AND CONTROL YOUR DESTINY
It’s been six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive income stream online now. The top 1% of all posts on Financial Samurai generates 31% of all traffic. The average age of the top 1% posts is 2.3 years old. In other words, after putting in the hours to write some very meaty content over two years ago, 10 posts consistently generate a monthly recurring income stream that’s completely passive.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, see how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes with Bluehost. Who knows where your new adventure will take you in 2015 and beyond!
Regards,
Sam
I think a lot of companies are scared to be opinionated but you’re right that people want brands that they can identify with and value. I have noticed more and more companies adding blogs to their websites but most of the content is boring and not personal.
I think the personal element is what makes blogs great and what keeps me coming back.
I think you’re right up Stanford’s alley and traditional journalism is changing. I try to catch typos and grammatical errors when I write but I know I make tons of mistakes that would probably make an English teacher cringe. But hey, I think reading writing that sounds like real speech is much more entertaining and intruiging.
You’re right about blogging not being easy – at least the making money part of it. Writing posts has always been easy for me. It’s the identifying with a large enough group of people to build real traffic that has always been elusive to me. But I’m learning to branch out and talk more with others and with your help hope to continue to increase it.
Blogging is definitely not easy, much harder than writing. You hit on a great point – the media is so saturated that people are looking for individuals within the sea that they identify with and trust. People definitely wants opinions because people are tired of arguing facts. If I say the sky is blue, someone will say it’s red, either to argue or because they don’t like me.
The act of blogging itself is hard if you get consumed with all of the other moving parts, but if you can focus on just the writing, if you can string some sentences together, it gets so much easier.
Are traditional media companies going to survive doing what they did 10 years ago? absolutely not. But, the ones that will have already made moves towards the future. Look at Newsweek. They scrapped their paper and will go all digital!
Blogging and everything around it is constantly and rapidly evolving. That is why I am reluctant to make a full-time leap, but it’s nice to have an option. Now, if I only made full-time money!
Newspapers seem to be doing everything possible to spot themselves in the foot when it comes to making the transition to online. When they hide their content behind paywalls, they aren’t boosting revenue; they are driving away potential readers.
I agree with your commercial thoughts on newspapers. Why they drive people away from their website is beyond me. They have unique content and surely make enough from banner adverts that charging somebody 20 cents/ pence a day to use the website is pointless. The website will drop in value by blocking people from accessing the content. If the business is moving online then the newspapers should welcome the change and adapt to make money through other non-traditional routes.
I find it interesting that more and more traditional media sources are welcoming bloggers. I’m working on a post right now about Wells Fargo, and I was able to reach out to a VP of Communications to get the inside scope for a piece. I was surprised to even get a response, only to learn they are more interested in blogger outreach as well.
I think it’s great traditional media is being more accepting of bloggers and new media. You’re right about bloggers needing to raising the quality of content. I enjoy the conversational writing styles of bloggers, but if basic quality is not there, it’s hard to go back.
Congrats to Kathryn for conceptualizing and starting Peninsula Press! Always a thrill to put journalism into practice! Great job doing some investigative reporting yourself Sam!
I think you’re right, bloggers can offer the best of both worlds, but we need to up our writing game if we want to become the absolute “go-to” for news and information consumption. It is interesting that mass media won’t inject opinion, even though it sells and gains readership MUCH better than dry news. I’m hoping to reach out to local media outlets soon and start up a mutually beneficial relationship to spread the word about budgeting and financial freedom. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I believe traditional media expresses some opinion in terms of bias. We all recognize that certain publications lean one way or another. The only way to get complete information is to read all of it. Media is changing though not in their objectivity, but in delivery. The public is demanding more convenience and must delivery electronically or die. Mobile devices are increasing and print media will be gone soon! More sources will fill thi sspace because of the low cost entry.
If you’re going to aggresively state an opinion on your blog it’s inevitable that you’re going to offend some potential advertisers. I think it’s possible in some cases to state your opinion on a subject matter without mentioning certain brand names if it’s not absolutely essential to the piece!
Blogging is not easy at all so seeing you keep upright information is good. You are doing so well keep it up. i have been seeing people talk about you and your posts, well to bring in my valuable idea in the health of the people that why i am determined to help.
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