Compensation 2.0

The Huffington Post may not pay its bloggers, but that doesn't mean writing for the Internet has to be a totally fruitless endeavor. Allvoices is a new citizen journalism website (which, maybe you haven't heard, is kind of a big deal these days) that is willing to pay-per-pageview for a blogger's take on things. So it's working under a Denton-esque model, which has made a few web writers modestly rich while dismissing other skilled talent unwilling to post YouTube bait. So how will Allvoices be different? By publishing actual worthwhile stories, and increasing the rate card.

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Aug 20, 2008 · Link · Respond

Cord Jefferson proposes: a moratorium on saying "fuck the haters." Because you probably are one. [Mollygood]

Aug 15, 2008 · Link · Respond

'Phil Rosenthal's story on Arianna Huffington's foray into the local blogging market included this line: "Writers work pro bono." "Pro bono" means "for the public good." What Rosenthal should've said is that Huffington wants writers to work for free so she can sell ads around their work. That ain't the public good. That ain't good, period.' [Romenesko]

Aug 13, 2008 · Link · 3 Responses
They would really, really appreciate it


CNN has plans to supplement their staff with non-traditional (read: not real) reporters, who will gather all their newsiest news armed only with a laptop and their bookmarks to The Drudge Report. Typically we call these people bloggers, but what do we know, we would never have called Richard Quest a reporter either and apparently he is.

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Aug 12, 2008 · Link · 3 Responses
Tina, Bonnie, and now Sharon

Bonnie Fuller and Tina Brown aren't the only ladies of the media industry rolling out new web projects. So, too, is NYT and WaPo scribe Sharon Waxman, currently blogging Hollywood at Waxword, a Deadline Hollywood-esque site punched up with Waxman's analysis.

Now flush with $500k in funding, Waxman in January will launch The Wrap News, a gossip-something-or-other website that will join the 947,000 other URLs doing the same thing.

In sharing the news of Waxman's new venture, sex obsessed media columnist Jon Friedman points to Waxman's recent story about The Hollywood Reporter being up for sale. Of course, Waxman, seen here getting strangled by Quentin Tarantino, was six months late to the story — Jossip was the first to connect the dots. In February. Here's hoping her Hollywood headlines will have a shorter timeline.

Aug 11, 2008 · Link · 2 Responses
Secret Business Plan: Get other bloggers to pay them

Ready to jump into the Web 2.0 fray, Salon — the left-y web magazine that isn't Slate — today launches Open Salon, a sorta bloggy-news-aggregator-social-networking thing that hopes to bank on the readership's tendency to whine and talk about each other. So far, we don't see any advertising, which makes Open Salon's most ambitious undertaking not its We Are One Web tool set, but how it plans to compensate bloggers content producers.

Because we all know one left-y website with a problem doing it.

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Aug 11, 2008 · Link · Respond
Christopher Ciccone Blogs

Now that he's exhausted all avenues of publicity — namely, Good Morning America and Chelsea Lately — Christopher Ciccone is taking his book tour to the web. As if there aren't enough places on the information superhighway trashing Madonna, Ciccone's started a blog to add to the fray where, he says, some of the material that lawyers kept out of the book appears. Which means you will find tales of Madonna pooping herself and Madonna sucking a guy off while the guy blows Christopher. Lawyers indeed!

But our favorite part of Ciccone's blogging so far? Madonna whining, in August 1993, about a savage Us Weekly article.

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Aug 7, 2008 · Link · 2 Responses
Yet is surprisingly white

It's hard to ironically speak for your generation. Or so says Christian Lander, founder of the popular website-cum-book Stuff White People Like, which is not a primer from the National Alliance's Shaun Walker.

In an interview with a New Republic intern (which is definitely something white people like to do), Lander comes off as a pretty grumpy for a guy who just managed to turn his mildly-satirical website into a feature book in under a year:

The concept of anonymous charities is completely lost on this generation. It's like a tree-falls-in-the-forest thing: If a white person does something positive and doesn't tell you about it, does it happen?

Good question, Christian. Keep us updated if you find out.

Aug 7, 2008 · Link · Respond
And Stick to 80s Recap Shows

Comcast is buying shopping newsletter DailyCandy for $125 million, which is either a sign that old media is finally "getting it," or that old media can still be convinced to buy things at inflated prices. But in case you needed another signal that old media actually does not get it, look no further than VH1's new blog Scandalist, which launched this week. Not only did its namers take a cue from Web 1.0 (see: Gothamist), but the nature of the site — celebrities, involved in scandals, oooh! — represents a three-years-too-late attempt to join the fray of celeb blog gossip with an insta-tired brand and exactly nothing new to bring to the table, except some traffic dumping from VH1's homepage (which is how AOL drives traffic to any of its dozens of un-read weblogs). Also: It's a lesson VH1 should've already learned.

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Aug 6, 2008 · Link · 1 Response

If CNN had instituted a blog publishing policy for employees, say, a year ago, they might have never had to fire Chez Pazienza, the American Morning producer who was axed without severance in February when brass found the content of his writing objectionable, but not that he was writing online. (Things like "Pat O’Brien is the single most ridiculous human being currently sucking down oxygen" is, apparently, not kosher to CNN.) But now CNN does have a rulebook for any staffers who would like to stuff a LiveJournal with drivel! And Pazienza himself has a copy of it.

CNN wants staffers to avoid taking public positions on virtually everything, because the network is in the business of reporting the news without bias, and even those not part of the news gathering process could impact the public perception of CNN.

Generally, then, staffers should only be blogging, posting on Facebook, uploading to Youtube, or trolling in Second Life things that "CNN would not report on." What falls into this list? A quick scope of CNN.com means no blogging about gorillas, Mars, earthquakes or storms, food or coffee, celebrities, or robots.

So what can CNN staffers blog about?

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Aug 5, 2008 · Link · Respond

First, the cable news blogs were throwing down. Now? New York's culture and real estate blogs. Says Remy Stern's Cityfile: "RIP OFFS: Well, look at that! The real estate trade site Curbed.com seems to have come with a quasi-accurate list/map of notable New Yorkers and where they've moved recently. Wonder where they got that idea! But, naturally, we're happy to have been of service." Indeed. Because any idea is even original anymore. Otherwise we could say Radar's "Talk of the Tabs" rips off our own feature of the same name.

Aug 1, 2008 · Link · Respond

i am taking off august
in blog-ville
2 c if i can
rosie unplugged
happy summer peeps
peace in
peace out

That's Rosie O'Donnell's (temporary?) farewell to blogging, which has just exhausted the mother of four. "It's too much," says the former and maybe-future television star. Also: She was tired of all your bitching.

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Jul 31, 2008 · Link · 4 Responses

About that front page story dedicated to lady bloggers, Dateline: BlogHer Conference? Turns out 1,200 words talking about the glass ceiling in blogging does not please the opressed! "According to some ticked critics of the Times, a lack of respect for female bloggers was etched into Jesella's piece itself," blogs Rebecca Traister onSalon. So what, you might not wonder, got their panties tangled up in a USB cord? For starters, that the article was published in the Times' Styles section.

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Jul 30, 2008 · Link · 2 Responses
Scoop World War

Know what's more childish than a cable news battle? A cable news blog battle! When it comes to chronicling America's most visible pundits, executive rank shake ups, and how talent spends their clothing allowances, there are really only a few players in the game. Beside all-things-media blogs like Jossip, TV news types log on to TVNewser, Chickaboomer, Inside Cable News, and Johnny Dollar. And just like the networks they cover, sometimes these blogs start attacking each other in print.

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Jul 21, 2008 · Link · 3 Responses

moviereel.jpg

Mainstream media stealing stories that break on the blogs? It's like 2001 all over again! A group of independent movie blogs who are tired of Variety and The Holllywood Reporter printing day-old blog news and claiming it as their own are banding together to boycott the trades. Now, because those bloggers aren't really buying the print edition of the trades, the way they'll be wielding their power is by refusing to link to either paper. Oooh, Internet warfare! [Folio]

Jul 18, 2008 · Link · 1 Response
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