Last week something happened in the journalistic community that basically went unnoticed by anyone with Internet access. While the Nexus 7 was making news, rumors were swirling about an Apple iPad mini, and Amazon said it would be coming out with a full-sized tablet, no one seemed to notice or care about one lady who made a job-hopping decision.
Her name is Kimberly Kelleher, and she has been called a superstar of the print industry. In 2011, she received the Ad Ages Magazine Publisher of the Year award. Her credits include a stint at Time, Inc., in which she was promoted to worldwide publisher of Time. She brought Time magazine into the digital age and was credited with bringing big advertisers to the magazine and bolstering the reputation of the company.
So why did the queen of publishing head for the magazine exit and become a tool for bloggers? The answer to that question is best described as her ambition to take a mediocre company and make it a stellar company. SAY media is such a company that is looking for a spark — a spark that will ignite the company from the current 400 employees and $100 million in revenues into a blogging machine that would make Rupert Murdoch at News Corp. envious.
SAY media now consists of two dozen or so blogging outlets that cover everything from technology to food, fashion, and lifestyles. But what makes blogs so different from print is the interaction that takes place between bloggers and readers.
How Good is This Interaction Between Bloggers and Readers?
We here at LockerGnome strive to answer and respond to all of the comments that are made and to share our expertise. What always amazes me is how much I learn in this exchange of information, thoughts, and experiences that readers share with us. With print, user comments sent by email are not printed nor read for a week or up to a month later. By the time one reads the printed comments, the subject matter has lost the readership’s interest.
Blogging also offers opinions on products, the latest and greatest operating systems, and what new ideas are coming from the technology industry. As an example, during the past three weeks, we have all read the articles written about Google’s first tablet computer, the Nexus 7. This pint sized 7″ tablet has received rave reviews and one could speculate that Google has built a winning product. As with the Apple iPad, these stimulating writings and accolades help consumers make an intelligent decision when buying a product.
Is Everything Perfect in Blogging Land?
Of course not, but neither is the world of print. There are some bloggers who fudge the truth and try to make a story where no story exists. However, their intentions may be more to entertain than properly inform. What comes to mind are all of the rumors circulating in reference to a possible iPad mini tablet, new designs for a future Kindle Fire, and, of course, the very popular iPhone and its next future model.
Having someone like Kimberly Kelleher come to the blogging community adds a bit of style and panache to the blogging trade. But more than that, she adds what some of us already knew, and that is: The future is blogging, not print. Today, as I glanced through my printed copy of Time magazine, my first thoughts turned to my tablet computer. I looked at the printed magazine, wondering to myself how much longer print will be around. How much longer will it be until all of our information will be gleaned digitally and not with ink and paper?
Most of us who are computer geeks have already stopped consuming print media and now depend solely on the Internet for our daily consumption of information. The variety of information being dispensed from millions of websites can be overwhelming. But for the technology crowd, we here at LockerGnome sincerely hope that we are providing you with a valuable service. We also hope that the technology information that we are providing will be considered, by you who read this, as our honest opinions backed up with the facts as we deduce them and presented in a concise package. This package includes not only our blogs, but video presentations and, we hope, useful advertising that keeps the lights on.
Comments, as always, are welcome.
CC licensed Flickr photo above shared by Sigfrid Lundberg
Source: Ad Ages Media News
Source: Denver Post
I was initially intrigued and excited at the wealth of blog wroting available via news apps like Zite and others.  Not the “what my pet had for breakfast” variety of course, but news-like stories that attempt to have something relevant to say. And while I still read them, I am increasingly dismayed by their lack of integrity.  The world of print had its crackpot writers as well of course, but it is far too easy in the  world of blog writing for any moron with a keyboard to write something that appears authoritative and to have it’d initially  published in the guise of trustworthy journalism. When journalism meant selling physical print to the reader, it seems that integrity was much more of a concern to publishers, nowadays I’m not so sure.Â
Rumors of smaller tablets, etc., may not be terribly consequential in the long run, but I have read articles with suggestions for homemade cleaning compounds that if used indiscriminately would prove exceptionally dangerous (both toxic and flammable), a review of the use of flash photography in museums claiming there is no damage caused by repeated flash exposure and in effect encouraging museum goers to put priceless works of art at risk, and even an article that addresses issues of national identity in a way that attempts to rewrite that nation’s history and heritage. The list could go on an on. There’s so much misinformation out there that it is bound eventually to have dire consequences. Â
I’m a scientist and academic, and while fallible, I am relatively comfortable judging for myself what is trustably and what I ought to be skeptical of. Â There is, of course, good blog writing out there, but how will the average person be able to tell one from the other? Â Â
For these reasons, I would prefer to see less blog-styled journalism, and MUCH more effort in the digital meda to develop means for the public to differentiate trustworthy sources from fools with keyboards.