Changing Formats

While Denton went for the juiciness and opted for a baity title, picked up by several writers, let us first make it clear that Gawker Media’s redesign does NOT ditch blogging but the classic blog design format.

A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.((Source: Wikipedia)) [Emphasis mine]

It is clear that Denton has ditched the term blog(ging) for a long time already, a sentiment also expressed in a Tweet during the heat of Gizmodo’s ‘Lost iPhone 4’ scoop. Gawker Media has, for quite some time, become ‘genuine Media’ already. It ditched the term blogging as a verb, as brilliantly worded by former Valleywag contributor Paul Boutin for Wired.com more than two years ago:

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

The time to retire the term ‘blog’ has come.

In other words, using the term blogging to describe professional citizen journalism is outdated and calling sites such as Gawker, TechCrunch, and other popular online publications a blog often is wrong and these sites, previously called blogs, often are journalistic publications. In an otherwise excellent recap, Wired.com’s Dylan Tweney totally misses this point and, like others, completely digs into Denton’s announcement article title: Gawker Gives Up on Blogging (And That’s a Good Thing). The correct title would be: Gawker ditches the blog [design] format. A format also defined in Wikipedia’s Blog entry, which I take the freedom to rehash here although already quoted and emphasised above:

… Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order…

The real question I have is: Why did it take Gawker that long to move to a format already popularised on smaller blogs and sites since mid 2007, when Darren Hoyt released his first Mimbo Theme ((A magazine theme for WordPress)) ?

Why Does The New Gawker Look Like BBC News?

When I first saw the new Gawker design, my first idea was that the design was aimed to push more traffic from the homepage, a strategy popularised by magazine-like themes and seen on sites such as AOL News, our own redesigned BBC News and the New York Times? While the position of the latest headlines block might be called controversial by advertising gurus, and one could expect a possible return of the left-sided skyscraper, the Gawker 2011 redesign does not introduce anything new. It merely rehashes many popular aspects of news-based web design such as a lead story, section blocks dominated by story tiles, and – last but not the least – a huge amount of links, rather than content on the homepage. Just like the BBC News homepage. Even the prominent display of the latest headlines, a smart way to improve page views on an otherwise very scarce design, is an approach used by many online publications, albeit not always positioned as high in the right sidebar. Just like on almost every BBC News article ((In a section with also most commented and most shared stories separated by tabs)). So why is the 2011 Gawker redesign hyped and discussed?

The real question is ‘When Will We Retire The Term Blogs’?

Denton’s announcement carried the clear message that the British born former Fortune journalist does not want his sites to be called blogs anymore and that they true media/journalism are. The guru, and doom predictor, understands the internet better than most bloggers and has long ago mastered and taught his crew the art of media and writing for the web. The art of the title and ‘co-owning’ stories are not Gawker exclusives, or attention points, but old MSM strategies used by almost any major publication and outcries by bloggers who feel abused when their scoop is stolen but not accredited don’t matter much. While accreditation might be nice and the ethical thing to do, in many a country accredited journalists do NOT have to cite their source and will never do so. Even one of the best Gizmodo entries ever, the SR-71 Blackbird piece, was compiled from several sources and initially did not have correct attribution. The real problem though is that many sites and bloggers are stuck in their love for blogs, awarding the term a special meaning rather than defining it as what it truly is:

A collection of entries published online [often] without editorial control before publication.

Can we retire the term blog and become writers again, columnists, for those who highly value the editorial content freedom?

JOAB was feared – feared because both authors knew what went on in the blogging gossip kitchen and had no remorse, hiding behind their pseudonyms which were only known by other insiders. Let’s be honest, Jack of All Blogs was over-rated and our network owner, Mark Saunders, probably paid way too much for this site – an error this admirable and honest man would repeat over the next five years with a sense of stubbornness worthy of everyone’s respect, until he diagnosed himself and admitted that blog shopping his guilty Sunday afternoon pleasure was. Jack of All Blogs was also the first site I made a paid appearance on and ever since then times were bound to change. I personally – and the landscape as well – would soon undergo a major transition, both for Mr. Bloggy and the blogging scene in general. Things were about to explode.

In 2005 and 2006 a worldwide change was taking place, and more and more people realised that blogging the gateway to a possible new career online was. The days of JOAB were counted but we didn’t know yet. While Mr. Bloggy its own transition underwent and was rebranded as Splashpress Media, WordPress had opened the floodgates and soon everyone and their three nephews had at least one blog. Or were still stuck on Myspace. Twitter was still in private Beta, Facebook was still exclusively for students – let alone had it applications yet – and Digg was important and actually drove traffic to the unknown sites. Michael Arrington interested us and Robert Scoble had already become our Scoble-goat. Those were the days when people knew who Mike Rundle and Matt Craven were.

Much has changed since then, and many a popular and respected writer has said goodbye to blogging or to the scene. Only few are still going strong. Some reformed journalists have made fortunes, others turned to spam/scraping, and several have put the world of the independent keyboard aside. When Jeremy Wright left the b5media network, the good old JOAB scene had totally died and although still going strong under the helm of Andrew G. Rosen, JOAB wasn’t JOAB anymore. I was not a snark writer anymore either, although I would not resist the odd dig at Michael Arrington.

Here at Splashpress Media, we now maintain a select network of well-known and respected publications, led by a team of prolific editors. At some point I was put in charge of everything. I, the person who got hired after publicly hitting out at the network owner on my personal blog. Since then several months have passed, our team has found itself, and everyone has grown in their role – ready to tackle Fall 2010 and the next decade. Many things at Splashpress Media will change over the next months, and many sites will be relaunched.

One thing is important though: here at Splashpress Media we do things differently. We are not your Gawker, About.com, or any other network of online publications, and we don’t exclusively focus on traffic or growth. While both are important for most networks and also for us, our main focus is to create valuable content. Content you want to read and not just content we know will generate traffic. ((Although we should maybe craft more bait entries ;))).

To kick things off, we now officially reboot Jack of All Blogs. Over the next months you will find articles written by all our authors and get an insight at how we run our show here. Don’t expect any gossip or snark anymore ((Although a little bird told me that our CEO still struggles and often fails to shut up)); instead get ready to gather more knowledge about the ins and outs of running a network of online publications.