November 2008 Archives
November 20, 2008
On blogging and bailouts
I floated this idea while having drinks with Kevin Maney in Washington DC a couple of weeks back: blogging could actually surge in a down economy. It's just a theory, but there is some data to support it. Blogging surged during the last recession, and that wave helped start this company and many others (Movable Type turned 7 last month!).
One of the core reasons that blogging has grown so much, in my opinion, is because it gives people a measure of freedom and control over their life. The way I put it with Kevin was "When you don't know where else to invest you invest in yourself." I think there is something inherently attractive to people in a world where so much is happening to them, out of their control, to being able to express themselves in ways they see fit.
Blogging for many started out as a hobby and turned into a career. And even those who don't make a living off blogging can find it valuable - we see countless authors, professionals, entrepreneurs, pundits, and the like blogging as a way to help themselves or their business. I started this blog when I was between jobs, and my blogging tends to be inversely proportional to how busy I am (something I need to change!).
The most eloquent description of the motivations for blogging, perhaps ever written, was Andrew Sullivan's recent article in The Atlantic. Here's a short excerpt, but if you haven't read the article already, please do:
Now, I don't necessarily believe that the blog industry, which continues to come of age and grow, will be helped in the short run by the recession. In other words, I would bet that activity will increase, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the business of blogging will be helped more than hurt by the recession. I do think there are some ways in which a recession might help in the long term -- a surge in activity is a long term benefit to blogging, and I suspect that many businesses and publishers will find blogging tools are a better, less expensive tools for web content management -- but in the end I think all of us are going to get hit by what happens in this economy. Companies will have to adjust, restructure, and get more creative, as we are doing.
Still, blogging continues to move forward. There have been some suggestions that blogging in its original form has or will start to weaken, as other forms of microblogging, social networking, and activity aggregation emerge. I see no evidence of this. Certainly there is evidence of the growth of these other forms of social publishing, and I believe they will all grow, but evidence of growth in one area is not evidence of decline in another. In fact, I believe all forms of social publishing actually help, more than compete with, each other.
Still, there is something special about "original" blogging, and again it's hard to top Andrew Sullivan who wrote "The simple experience of being able to directly broadcast my own words to readers was an exhilarating literary liberation." It was our mission, 7 years ago, to enable literary liberation, and this mission has never been more important. We decided to start a "bailout" program to help journalists in this difficult time, with a free TypePad Pro account and entrance on our Six Apart Media program, among the benefits. It received some praise, and some derision, at first but it's been extraordinarily well received, with hundreds of people applying for the program.
If you have thoughts on how Six Apart should help support bloggers or help start people blogging, in this economy, I'd love to hear them.
One of the core reasons that blogging has grown so much, in my opinion, is because it gives people a measure of freedom and control over their life. The way I put it with Kevin was "When you don't know where else to invest you invest in yourself." I think there is something inherently attractive to people in a world where so much is happening to them, out of their control, to being able to express themselves in ways they see fit.
Blogging for many started out as a hobby and turned into a career. And even those who don't make a living off blogging can find it valuable - we see countless authors, professionals, entrepreneurs, pundits, and the like blogging as a way to help themselves or their business. I started this blog when I was between jobs, and my blogging tends to be inversely proportional to how busy I am (something I need to change!).
The most eloquent description of the motivations for blogging, perhaps ever written, was Andrew Sullivan's recent article in The Atlantic. Here's a short excerpt, but if you haven't read the article already, please do:
A blog, therefore, bobs on the surface of the ocean but has its anchorage in waters deeper than those print media is technologically able to exploit. It disempowers the writer to that extent, of course.
The blogger can get away with less and afford fewer pretensions of authority. He is--more than any writer of the past--a node among other nodes, connected but unfinished without the links and the comments and the track-backs that make the blogosphere, at its best, a conversation, rather than a production.
Now, I don't necessarily believe that the blog industry, which continues to come of age and grow, will be helped in the short run by the recession. In other words, I would bet that activity will increase, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the business of blogging will be helped more than hurt by the recession. I do think there are some ways in which a recession might help in the long term -- a surge in activity is a long term benefit to blogging, and I suspect that many businesses and publishers will find blogging tools are a better, less expensive tools for web content management -- but in the end I think all of us are going to get hit by what happens in this economy. Companies will have to adjust, restructure, and get more creative, as we are doing.
Still, blogging continues to move forward. There have been some suggestions that blogging in its original form has or will start to weaken, as other forms of microblogging, social networking, and activity aggregation emerge. I see no evidence of this. Certainly there is evidence of the growth of these other forms of social publishing, and I believe they will all grow, but evidence of growth in one area is not evidence of decline in another. In fact, I believe all forms of social publishing actually help, more than compete with, each other.
Still, there is something special about "original" blogging, and again it's hard to top Andrew Sullivan who wrote "The simple experience of being able to directly broadcast my own words to readers was an exhilarating literary liberation." It was our mission, 7 years ago, to enable literary liberation, and this mission has never been more important. We decided to start a "bailout" program to help journalists in this difficult time, with a free TypePad Pro account and entrance on our Six Apart Media program, among the benefits. It received some praise, and some derision, at first but it's been extraordinarily well received, with hundreds of people applying for the program.
If you have thoughts on how Six Apart should help support bloggers or help start people blogging, in this economy, I'd love to hear them.
