THE BLOGBUDSMAN: YOU AND ALL YOUR BLOGGERS

by BOHChris, Blog of Hilarity

The Blogbudsman is your weekly take on the blogosphere, written as objectively and honestly as possible. Questions, comments, and suggestions should go to roomtonecsATblogofhilarityDOTcom

So there were some interesting reactions emailed to me about last week's post that I'll address quickly. I think the main takeaway many people had was that, other than The Big Lead and Awful Announcing, there wasn't much to the blogosphere on the reporting side. A couple interesting points came out, however; something of a cause and effect situation, actually.

One person emailing me suggested that the reason sports bloggers as "outsiders" in the media landscape can't break their own news is because of the density of people in legitimate media outlets reporting across the country. With thousands upon thousands of journalists fighting for scoops in every sport, even a blogger who can develop sources is severely behind the 8-ball compared to the least qualified beat-writer.

The second point I liked from another emailer was that, essentially, sports bloggers are content to parrot ESPN's top stories of the day. On any given day, you'll see one story beaten to death on ESPN.com, then on Around the Horn, then on PTI, then on Sportscenter. While this goes on, you're splicing in opinions from bloggers who merely contribute to the oversaturation of stories. Even with a fresh take, the stories being discussed are so overexposed that anything other than quirky humor are forgotten. Think about what your takeaways are from, let's say something like The Dugout discussing the Mitchell Report compared to a blogger attempting to provide a serious viewpoint. One will entertain you and strike you as unique. The other will come off as repetitive sheerly by the law of averages. When it comes to opinions on big-ticket news, many bloggers and journalists are not "special little snowflakes." Someone out there is probably saying the exact same thing.

And onto this week...a look at the "multiple blogger model," as seen on AOL's Fanhouse and, of course, this very site, Overhyped and Underhyped, and more.

THE BLOGAZORD

I'm going with the word Blogazord to describe the collaborations of dozens of prominent bloggers. It's a reference to the Power Rangers' Megazord. Feel free to sub in "Blogtron" as you see fit.

On a surface level, the model of getting several prominent bloggers together, consolidating audiences and forming a unified front, seems to be logical. Particularly in the case of AOL's Fanhouse, in which a cadre of bloggers is backed by a "media company," the thought process behind combining known quantities to one greater collaboration falls in line with one that many accept as fact: Two heads are better than one. So ostensibly, thirty heads are even better.

Except not.

I'm going to be completely honest here up front. I don't read Fanhouse every day. In fact, I don't read Epic Carnival every day. That's not to say I don't check out both sites' feeds and see what's going on. But there's too much for me. And I'm absolutely obsessed with media. I regularly refresh some of my most favorite blogs to look for new content. But there is such a thing as too much, particularly when couple with issues of uniqueness that are inherent with any "Blogazord."

On December 15th, a Saturday, Fanhouse featured 25 new posts. In approximately ten hours. So while three posts an hour may not seem like a lot necessarily, if I'm away from my computer for four hours on a Saturday (a fairly logical assumption for many people), I'm going to have to look through 12 posts just to catch up. And that's in addition to the new content going up every 20 minutes. And what if I, like many Americans, don't go online to read blogs during non-office hours? Then I have over 50 posts to read if I really enjoy all of Fanhouse's work. There's a "completist" sense to reading many prominent blogs. Many readers usually take in several posts at once due to the quick-hit style most blogs have. But to ask a reader to read that many posts at once, even from the highest quality writer, is a stretch.

There's also a high likelihood that genuinely interesting content is being lost in the shuffle as well. For example, did you know Ed O'Neill is really into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and received his black belt? I definitely didn't. And I never would have if I hadn't had to comb through Fanhouse to count the number of posts on a Saturday.

Then, there's the other end of the spectrum. While Fanhouse is guilty of an overwhelming amount of content, Epic Carnival, for all its bloggers, offers approximately 12 posts per day (based upon the numbers from December 14, a Friday). In addition, one post was a random YouTube video post, another was a cheap T and A post, and another a one line "Photoshop Award" post. So we're talking nine posts of original written content. Taking out issues of quality, which is entirely subjective, nine posts from a team of 45 bloggers is unequivocally ridiculous.

On Epic Carnival, one particular issue I've noticed is the loss of voice. If you go to any EC blogger's site there's a sense of voice and uniqueness that I rarely see on EC. Again, quality is subjective, however I truly believe that if you took away the bylines of many of our authors on EC, it would be difficult to figure out who wrote what. That's not a dig on anyone, but rather a reflection of the aforementioned "special little snowflake" syndrome; odds are, your opinion isn't unique. When alongside dozens of other writers, that becomes glaringly obvious.

And one last problem for both Blogazords would be the fact that many of their bloggers are also still running their own blogs. When you consider that these bloggers are amateur writers and that even the most experienced journalists would be hard-pressed to turn out 6 interesting items per day in addition to a couple extra items for another site, there's always a feeling of writers being overextended. Couple that with the fact that many bloggers are blogging in addition to a traditional 9-to-5 job and I defy you to tell me that all of these posts are writers at their absolute best.

In the interest of full disclosure, comparing AOL's Fanhouse to Epic Carnival is unfair in many ways. Epic Carnival is primarily a passion project at this point for many writers here. I've yet to see a dime from the site and I believe the same is true for everyone else.

Conversely, at least some of Fanhouse's bloggers are now blogging as a primary source of income. Additionally, with your income as an AOL blogger being tied to how many posts you can throw up, there's reason for a Michael David Smith to contribute around 10 or more posts per day. And unfortunately, not many people can keep a high level of uniqueness and quality over the span of that many posts per day. Particularly when posted amongst countless other writers writing a similar "AOL style."

And that, rather than personal bias, is why I'm more inclined to feel disappointed by Fanhouse than Epic Carnival.

Fanhouse has been around for over a year now and, frankly, I'd be hesitant to say I remember any one interesting thing that's happened there. I don't find the site bad at all. But I find it generic and failing to live up to potential in many ways. I don't find the veneer of professionalism I find on AOL's other primary blog ventures, TMZ and Blogging Stocks. In fact, I'm not sure what benefit there is for Fanhouse to be backed by AOL other than a regular paycheck for some bloggers who rose to fame in the sports blogosphere. Does the AOL name provide any additional credibility? Or does it allow these bloggers any access they may not have had? I'd be genuinely interested in knowing.

So as you can see, I'm not a fan of the Blogazord model. But that's not to say I wouldn't be if it were done well. I believe, in ideal circumstances, a successful Blogazord would need to be have the following things:

1) Streamlined - The traditional blog model (posts scrolling downwards according to date and time) doesn't pass readability muster when there's over 40 posts in one day. Adopt a design similar to Newser.com or, yes, ESPN.com and maybe we can talk.

2) Paid staff - Writers need to be dedicated solely to the site. All of their best, original content needs to be put up front on this collaboration rather than some there and some on their own blog. Hiring writers under exclusive contracts as staff would ensure the best quality, even from someone who isn't a "trained journalist."

3) Backed by a large media company - You're not going to become a viable network on your own. You need credibility to make this work. You need reporting in addition to top notch "traditional sports blog content" (i.e. Photoshops, quirky news, et al) to get the mainstream reader and the blog reader. Only the resources of a traditional media company can get the advertisers and access this needs. Fox Sports...Yahoo (I'm looking at you, Jamie Mottram)...make it happen.

4) Traditional media incorporation - There needs to be ethics and design in place. Things like editorial calendars and working more efficiently with publicists are both things many bloggers don't utilize. But to ensure an efficient, professional operation, you need an editor who can understand structure.

So that's my two cents. Disagree? Argue with me in the comments.

OVERHYPED AND UNDERHYPED

Overhyped: Duh. The Mitchell Report. Technorati reveals approximately 3000 posts on the subject. Marked down for spam, that's probably about 2000 posts. How many ways can you say "Lol. Roger Clemens took it in the butt"?

Underhyped: Bobby Petrino's quitting on the Falcons and 24-hour turnaround to joining Arkansas. Usually a coach betraying an NFL team like this is far more fun.

WORD

That's all for this week. Thanks to everyone for the kind words after the first piece. Remember, I'm whining for your own good.

Email me at roomtonecsATblogofhilarityDOTcom. Fanhouse fans, tell me I should contract AIDS in the comments.