So You Think You Want to Go It Alone . . .
Jason Fry |
Oct. 26, 2009 8:01 a.m.
Once upon a time, the career path for young journalists was well-marked. You started off at a little paper, worked really hard, then moved on to a slightly bigger paper and repeated the process – until you’d risen as high as you could or wished to. You started off working unglamorous beats – night cops, say, or covering city government meetings – that demanded you work nights and weekends. Sometimes you’d even get a byline. This was paying your dues, but it was also learning your craft, turning journalism basics into muscle memory.
It worked for a long time. But now it’s breaking down, for two reasons.
The first reason isn’t exactly a news flash: The newspaper industry is in trouble.
Saddled with debt and beset by shrinking ad revenue and declining circulation, many papers are cutting costs anywhere they can: scrapping home delivery, restricting print to certain days of the week, and of course shrinking the news hole and eliminating newsroom jobs. Last year, by one measure nearly 16,000 journalism jobs vanished through layoffs or buyouts. (Mine was one of them.)
The second reason? It’s that the Internet lets anybody be a publisher in less time than it will take you to read this column. Want to have your own blog, with a potentially world-wide audience? You can be up and running in about two minutes. That blog can be about anything you want – no working your way up the ladder, no paying dues. If you work hard enough, you might get the kind of recognition you can only dream of in your day job, and in a lot less time. And if you get lucky, you might even make some money.
Given all this, if you’re a young sportswriter – or a young writer who’d rather be writing about sports – you’ve probably wondered if you’re in the wrong racket. Why should you spend years working your way up the ranks for a prize that might get taken away? Why tie your fortunes to an industry that’s shrinking alarmingly, and repaying journalists’ loyalties with pink slips?
Why not go it alone?
I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t. But here are some things to think twice about, drawn from my own experience as a journalist with a blogging hobby and from the experience of a writer who made the jump – but in an unexpected way.
My friend Greg Prince and I started writing Faith and Fear in Flushing in the spring of 2005. By any measure we’re a pretty big blog: In recent months we’ve averaged 250,000 monthly page views. Faith and Fear has been immensely rewarding: Greg published a book, the blog has led to freelance gigs for both of us, and we’ve dabbled in TV commentary. But for all that, we’ve never made a thin dime directly from the blog. (We’re going to try this winter – I’ll let you know how it goes.) And it’s been an enormous amount of work, much of which has had little or nothing to do with being a writer.
Then there’s Michael Tunison. Back in 2008, Tunison was a 25-year-old editorial aide for the Washington Post’s Montgomery County, Md., bureau. He was also Christmas Ape, one of the bloggers for Kissing Suzy Kolber, a hilarious and oft-ribald site for NFL commentary. In April of that year, Tunison revealed his identity through a blog post that included an old picture of him drunk (his description was “totally f—— hammered”), some blind links to his Post stories and the unfortunate tag line “WaPo fires me in 3…2…” That was indeed what happened: Tunison was dismissed two days later.
Tunison now writes for several blogs, and says he makes “a little more than I did for the Post.” He also received an advance for his recently published book, The Football Fan’s Manifesto. That may sound like a dream come true – but Tunison, too, counsels caution.
So before you trade your cubicle for WordPress or Blogger, some things to consider:
* Your Hobby May Not Stay a Hobby: When I started co-writing Faith and Fear, I blogged just as “Jason.” Once we had something of an audience, I wanted some recognition, but now I had a problem – I’d never told my boss what I was up to. (I was also briefly and inadvertently outed by Deadspin, but that’s another story.) He was angry, quite understandably – I was allowed to continue, but under strict ground rules.
Tunison began blogging as Christmas Ape “as a lark because I enjoy sports and comedy writing, and those were things I was not able to indulge otherwise dealing with community news for a mainstream newspaper.” But he too came to regret anonymity. As their profiles grew, the KSK writers were increasingly criticized for railing against public figures when they themselves were veiled. They were in line to get a “very generous” signing bonus for a newly forged relationship with Uproxx Media. And Tunison had become increasingly proud of his work at KSK, and realized that “it sucks to have to hide something you love.”
Regarding anonymity, Tunison says that “a lot of people are content to keep [a blog] as a habit that won’t become a central part of their lives. I don’t fault them for keeping the veil on. For those starting out, it’s a matter of examining your circumstances. Does your work have a stated policy against using social media. Will the content of your writing cause problems for you?”
As I see it, the question to keep in mind here is, “What if you succeed?” If your writing gets the kind of audience you hope for, one of two things is likely happen: You’ll either want to step forward and get the recognition you’ve earned, or you’ll conclude you’re bulletproof, let clues to your identity slip, and get caught. Either way, you may be facing a situation you’re not prepared for. Sitting in your boss’s office isn’t the time to start thinking about it.
* Successful Blogging Is More Than Writing: From a production-and-distribution point of view, blogging is easy – no printing presses or delivery trucks involved. From a writing point of view, it’s hard. There’s the same terror of a blank screen and waiting keys you face in print. But there’s no brand to fall back on — you’re on your own. Blogs only become successful through hard work day after day after day, and if you don’t do it, nobody else will.
“Most likely, you’re not going to make any money right away,” Tunison says. “So it’s not like if you had a job, you could ditch it tomorrow and start a successful blog straight away. It takes a while to build up a steady stream of advertisers or create enough attention for yourself online to get a paid arrangement with a large network of blogs.”
The day-to-day business of running Faith and Fear includes maintaining links, policing comments, talking to our hosting people, killing spam trackbacks, reaching out to other bloggers, fussing with HTML, emailing folks about possible work, and talking to the company that makes Faith and Fear t-shirts, to name just some of the chores involved. (And our workload will only increase when we add advertising and do some of the other things we have planned.) Note that nothing in that list has anything to do with improving as a writer — or with writing at all. Running a blog is a lot like running a small business, with some writing on the side. Make sure that’s what you want.
* How’s Your Foundation? A lot of established sportswriters have made fools of themselves railing about bloggers in their mother’s basements, complaining that they went to journalism school and are specially trained, and otherwise indulging in get-off-my-lawnism. I think most of that is reactionary nonsense. But not all of it – when Greg and I started Faith and Fear, we were both experienced journalists who’d done lots and lots of meat-and-potatoes stories for various employers. A lot of them were dull stuff, but they’d given us a firm foundation as reporters and writers.
We didn’t need that to blog, but we did wind up grateful for it. Again, the question to ask here is, “What if I succeed?” If you gain a following as a blogger, readers will hold what you write to certain standards for fairness and accuracy – and in my experience, readers’ standards are higher than you might think. They will pick apart the honesty of your writing and the logic of your arguments, and they will do it publicly. When that happens, a good journalistic footing is an enormous relief.
So do you have your footing? You may feel you weren’t put on this earth to cover night cops, community boards or high-school sports, but it’s a superb apprenticeship – and you’re even getting paid to learn. Even in these tough times, that’s not to be discarded lightly.
Still ready? Do the math. Research how much can you realistically make from blog ads or sponsorships. Think about what freelance avenues you have available – and if you have enough time to make them pay. Figure out what your living expenses are, and how monastic an existence you’re prepared to live. Maybe that exercise will convince you that yes, making a living as a blogger is for you. If so, that’s great. But make sure the time is right, and look before you leap.
“It’s hard for me to delineate a strategy for other emerging writers,” Tunison says, warning that his circumstances aren’t easily replicated. “The financial picture is hugely important, especially with the economy how it is now,” he says. “Anyone willing to ditch their day job needs to know they have something in place that they can make a living doing.”
Jason Fry spent more than 12 years at The Wall Street Journal Online, serving as a writer, columnist, editor and projects guy, and is now the Web evangelist for EidosMedia, a maker of editing-and-publishing software for newspapers and other publishers. While at WSJ.com he edited and co-wrote The Daily Fix, a daily roundup of the best sportswriting online. He blogs about the Mets at Faith and Fear in Flushing (www.faithandfearinflushing.com), and about the newspaper industry at Reinventing the Newsroom (www.reinventingthenewsroom.com). Write to him at jason.fry@gmail.com, visit him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jason.fry, or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jasoncfry.
It worked for a long time. But now it’s breaking down, for two reasons.
The first reason isn’t exactly a news flash: The newspaper industry is in trouble.
Saddled with debt and beset by shrinking ad revenue and declining circulation, many papers are cutting costs anywhere they can: scrapping home delivery, restricting print to certain days of the week, and of course shrinking the news hole and eliminating newsroom jobs. Last year, by one measure nearly 16,000 journalism jobs vanished through layoffs or buyouts. (Mine was one of them.)
The second reason? It’s that the Internet lets anybody be a publisher in less time than it will take you to read this column. Want to have your own blog, with a potentially world-wide audience? You can be up and running in about two minutes. That blog can be about anything you want – no working your way up the ladder, no paying dues. If you work hard enough, you might get the kind of recognition you can only dream of in your day job, and in a lot less time. And if you get lucky, you might even make some money.
Given all this, if you’re a young sportswriter – or a young writer who’d rather be writing about sports – you’ve probably wondered if you’re in the wrong racket. Why should you spend years working your way up the ranks for a prize that might get taken away? Why tie your fortunes to an industry that’s shrinking alarmingly, and repaying journalists’ loyalties with pink slips?
Why not go it alone?
I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t. But here are some things to think twice about, drawn from my own experience as a journalist with a blogging hobby and from the experience of a writer who made the jump – but in an unexpected way.
My friend Greg Prince and I started writing Faith and Fear in Flushing in the spring of 2005. By any measure we’re a pretty big blog: In recent months we’ve averaged 250,000 monthly page views. Faith and Fear has been immensely rewarding: Greg published a book, the blog has led to freelance gigs for both of us, and we’ve dabbled in TV commentary. But for all that, we’ve never made a thin dime directly from the blog. (We’re going to try this winter – I’ll let you know how it goes.) And it’s been an enormous amount of work, much of which has had little or nothing to do with being a writer.
Then there’s Michael Tunison. Back in 2008, Tunison was a 25-year-old editorial aide for the Washington Post’s Montgomery County, Md., bureau. He was also Christmas Ape, one of the bloggers for Kissing Suzy Kolber, a hilarious and oft-ribald site for NFL commentary. In April of that year, Tunison revealed his identity through a blog post that included an old picture of him drunk (his description was “totally f—— hammered”), some blind links to his Post stories and the unfortunate tag line “WaPo fires me in 3…2…” That was indeed what happened: Tunison was dismissed two days later.
Tunison now writes for several blogs, and says he makes “a little more than I did for the Post.” He also received an advance for his recently published book, The Football Fan’s Manifesto. That may sound like a dream come true – but Tunison, too, counsels caution.
So before you trade your cubicle for WordPress or Blogger, some things to consider:
* Your Hobby May Not Stay a Hobby: When I started co-writing Faith and Fear, I blogged just as “Jason.” Once we had something of an audience, I wanted some recognition, but now I had a problem – I’d never told my boss what I was up to. (I was also briefly and inadvertently outed by Deadspin, but that’s another story.) He was angry, quite understandably – I was allowed to continue, but under strict ground rules.
Tunison began blogging as Christmas Ape “as a lark because I enjoy sports and comedy writing, and those were things I was not able to indulge otherwise dealing with community news for a mainstream newspaper.” But he too came to regret anonymity. As their profiles grew, the KSK writers were increasingly criticized for railing against public figures when they themselves were veiled. They were in line to get a “very generous” signing bonus for a newly forged relationship with Uproxx Media. And Tunison had become increasingly proud of his work at KSK, and realized that “it sucks to have to hide something you love.”
Regarding anonymity, Tunison says that “a lot of people are content to keep [a blog] as a habit that won’t become a central part of their lives. I don’t fault them for keeping the veil on. For those starting out, it’s a matter of examining your circumstances. Does your work have a stated policy against using social media. Will the content of your writing cause problems for you?”
As I see it, the question to keep in mind here is, “What if you succeed?” If your writing gets the kind of audience you hope for, one of two things is likely happen: You’ll either want to step forward and get the recognition you’ve earned, or you’ll conclude you’re bulletproof, let clues to your identity slip, and get caught. Either way, you may be facing a situation you’re not prepared for. Sitting in your boss’s office isn’t the time to start thinking about it.
* Successful Blogging Is More Than Writing: From a production-and-distribution point of view, blogging is easy – no printing presses or delivery trucks involved. From a writing point of view, it’s hard. There’s the same terror of a blank screen and waiting keys you face in print. But there’s no brand to fall back on — you’re on your own. Blogs only become successful through hard work day after day after day, and if you don’t do it, nobody else will.
“Most likely, you’re not going to make any money right away,” Tunison says. “So it’s not like if you had a job, you could ditch it tomorrow and start a successful blog straight away. It takes a while to build up a steady stream of advertisers or create enough attention for yourself online to get a paid arrangement with a large network of blogs.”
The day-to-day business of running Faith and Fear includes maintaining links, policing comments, talking to our hosting people, killing spam trackbacks, reaching out to other bloggers, fussing with HTML, emailing folks about possible work, and talking to the company that makes Faith and Fear t-shirts, to name just some of the chores involved. (And our workload will only increase when we add advertising and do some of the other things we have planned.) Note that nothing in that list has anything to do with improving as a writer — or with writing at all. Running a blog is a lot like running a small business, with some writing on the side. Make sure that’s what you want.
* How’s Your Foundation? A lot of established sportswriters have made fools of themselves railing about bloggers in their mother’s basements, complaining that they went to journalism school and are specially trained, and otherwise indulging in get-off-my-lawnism. I think most of that is reactionary nonsense. But not all of it – when Greg and I started Faith and Fear, we were both experienced journalists who’d done lots and lots of meat-and-potatoes stories for various employers. A lot of them were dull stuff, but they’d given us a firm foundation as reporters and writers.
We didn’t need that to blog, but we did wind up grateful for it. Again, the question to ask here is, “What if I succeed?” If you gain a following as a blogger, readers will hold what you write to certain standards for fairness and accuracy – and in my experience, readers’ standards are higher than you might think. They will pick apart the honesty of your writing and the logic of your arguments, and they will do it publicly. When that happens, a good journalistic footing is an enormous relief.
So do you have your footing? You may feel you weren’t put on this earth to cover night cops, community boards or high-school sports, but it’s a superb apprenticeship – and you’re even getting paid to learn. Even in these tough times, that’s not to be discarded lightly.
Still ready? Do the math. Research how much can you realistically make from blog ads or sponsorships. Think about what freelance avenues you have available – and if you have enough time to make them pay. Figure out what your living expenses are, and how monastic an existence you’re prepared to live. Maybe that exercise will convince you that yes, making a living as a blogger is for you. If so, that’s great. But make sure the time is right, and look before you leap.
“It’s hard for me to delineate a strategy for other emerging writers,” Tunison says, warning that his circumstances aren’t easily replicated. “The financial picture is hugely important, especially with the economy how it is now,” he says. “Anyone willing to ditch their day job needs to know they have something in place that they can make a living doing.”
Jason Fry spent more than 12 years at The Wall Street Journal Online, serving as a writer, columnist, editor and projects guy, and is now the Web evangelist for EidosMedia, a maker of editing-and-publishing software for newspapers and other publishers. While at WSJ.com he edited and co-wrote The Daily Fix, a daily roundup of the best sportswriting online. He blogs about the Mets at Faith and Fear in Flushing (www.faithandfearinflushing.com), and about the newspaper industry at Reinventing the Newsroom (www.reinventingthenewsroom.com). Write to him at jason.fry@gmail.com, visit him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jason.fry, or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jasoncfry.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Nice article. It was very informing and you gave a good realistic expectation of online writing. I also liked how you used your own experience to give advice. I enjoyed it.