I thought this article in Radar by former Gawker editor Choire Sicha was pretty interesting. And it gives voice to something I've been thinking for a long time: As fun and exciting as it sounds, I've always thought that being paid to be a full-time blogger would be more stress than it's worth.
While the angle of the story is on a recent pay rate cut at Gawker Media, the article also spells out how the whole Gawker pay system works...pageviews, pageviews, pageviews. And yes, while that makes a certain amount of sense, and writers/bloggers should always be hyper-conscious of what their audience will want to read, link to, and send around, I think this kind of model creates writers that are less concerned with creating compelling content and more interested in linking to or creating content (read: the more salacious, the better) that functions solely as a traffic driver. Do those two categories of content have to be mutually exclusive? Probably not. But I can see how, concerned with pay and job security, a lot of people could displace the former for the latter.
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2 comments:
Damn, that does sound like a lot of pressure. Never had to worry much about how many people were reading the crap I wrote. This would be tough.
Good find.
I agree. I make cards - you know invitations, thank you notes. They turn out okay and that handmade angle wows the masses. I only make them for things I'm hosting or for family members once or twice.
A few years ago, my sister-in-law talked me into doing it for money. I had two paying gigs - the most miserable weeks of my card-making life. I learned the hard way that hobbies are to be cherished. I never want to go pro with something I love to do because it immediately becomes WORK.
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