Social media author and consultant Paul Gillin has entered the important debate about why there aren't more bloggers watching major media. It's unfolding on yesterday's Nieman Journalism Lab post by Martin Langeveld: Adios, Gannett Blog; where are the rest of the watchblogs? From Paul's comment today:It’s clear that
Gannett Blog's success was a surprise to everyone, including
Jim Hopkins. As activity exploded, he was faced with the difficult decision of whether to try to take the blog’s celebrity to the next level or keep it as an interesting sidelight. Jim tried to make a run at a sustainable financial model last fall through a kind of tip jar approach, but that ran into the same problems that all publishers encounter these days: people don’t want to pay for news.
Faced with the prospect of continuing to sustain the effort on a labor of love basis while also becoming a lightning rod for criticism, Jim made a reasonable decision in my view. If he’s been a little dramatic in winding down the operation, I can understand that.
Gannett Blog has provided a valuable service for many Gannett employees for two years, but no one is willing or able to step up and support the effort. It’s not surprising that Jim is pointing out what they’re about to lose.
Whether or not you agree with the way Jim has handled comments from readers, it’s clear that this blog has taxed the limits of one man’s ability to give without compensation. He deserves thanks and respect for all he is put into the effort.
To address Martin’s comment about the lack of watchdogs, the problem is that no one wants to pay watchdogs. My own blogging activities on
Newspaper Death Watch have consumed hundreds of hours of time over the last 27 months while yielding a few hundred dollars in advertising revenue and no meaningful business opportunities. That’s okay. I do it because I love it, but if my family’s livelihood were ever at stake, it’s the first activity I would have to jettison.
That’s where this story is also a microcosm of the industry. Newspapers are the watchdogs of our institutions, but their financial predicament makes that role less and less viable. It would be nice to look to the blogosphere for salvation, but those who choose a watchdog role must also face up to the realities of the market. New media has yet to figure out a viable financial model for watchdogs, and it may never do so. For the time being, we are increasingly delegating that function to people like Jim Hopkins, who can only give so much.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
Updated at 2:49 p.m. today. For the latest numbers, please see the layoff tracker, top of page. This is the fifth and last in Gannett Blog's Roll Call series, where employees tally layoffs and other unannounced payroll cuts by the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher: Gannett Co.
Faced with the prospect of continuing to sustain the effort on a labor of love basis while also becoming a lightning rod for criticism, Jim made a reasonable decision in my view. If he’s been a little dramatic in winding down the operation, I can understand that. Gannett Blog has provided a valuable service for many Gannett employees for two years, but no one is willing or able to step up and support the effort. It’s not surprising that Jim is pointing out what they’re about to lose.
I work at USA Today and like everyone else in the company we are sitting here reading these hundreds of postings in great sadness and disbelief. Trust me, many of us came from the very newspapers we're reading about and the layoffs show an industry disintegrating.
No one here feels safe or smug and all I can say that the image of us sitting here in the hundreds is very wrong. Also, we care and we feel the carnage.
It's like watching a disaster movie. Blessings to us all.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
A look in someone's eyes. A cardboard box on an empty desk. A final conversation. Please share your layoff story in three or four paragraphs. Post replies in the comments section, below. Or e-mail via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Who who who . . . Asbury Park just lost some long timers!! . . . Northeast Wisconsin learns today? . . . They have started in Des Moines. . . . Waiting here in Cherry Hill. The mood is somber. . . . Damnit this is horrible. They continue to make us suffer what creeps. . . . In Louisville, more names dropping Thursday. . . . The dawn is breaking on another work day. . . . . They are coming to take me away aha. They are coming to take me away aha. . . .The numbers will grow. Rochester will not finish until today or possibly Friday. . . . Northing happened in Poughkeepsie yesterday. People are getting more anxious by the minute. . . . Any word from Asheville or Greenville?
