Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, August 4, 2009
Media Gawker Stole My Eyeballs!
Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Washington Post writer Ian Shapira on the discontents of being linked by one of the most popular blogs on the web.
After all the reporting, it took me about a day to write the 1,500-word piece. How long did it take Gawker to rewrite and republish it, cherry-pick the funniest quotes, sell ads against it and ultimately reap 9,500 (and counting) page views?I called up Hamilton Nolan, the Gawker writer to whom I had been so grateful. "Probably took me," he said, "you know . . . a half-hour to an hour."
Shapira doesn't like this one bit, but Gawker replies: Whatever. Your product sucks. If we didn't condense and repackage it, no one would read it.
Lesson: Best just to say thanks for the link.
1
Gawker is partly right, Eli... Blog linking grabs browsers who might not otherwise have seen a piece. It also draws attention to good writing and, more importantly, good writers.
On the other hand, I often click through links to the original source if I like the excerpts I see on a blog. Shapira misses the fact that there is traffic to be gained as well by the linking.
On the other hand, I often click through links to the original source if I like the excerpts I see on a blog. Shapira misses the fact that there is traffic to be gained as well by the linking.
3
Some say that blogs are killing newspapers.
Others say they're not.
Both sides are equally valid, so we can't tell you which one is true. We can't explain why this is so.
Others say they're not.
Both sides are equally valid, so we can't tell you which one is true. We can't explain why this is so.
4
You know what's really exciting? Bloggers blogging about other bloggers blogging about stuff, and then fighting about it. What would really make this story hott is if he broke up with his blogger girl- or boyfriend because of this, and blogged about that.
5
Maybe if the staff at The Stranger were to all take turns confessing their moments of posting "repackaged" content from other news sites, Shapira would understand that Gawker media isn't acting any different than other blogs.
6
a quote-heavy post about a posts about quote-heavy posts!
(gawker's right, the WP is insane on this one)
(gawker's right, the WP is insane on this one)
7
i have to admit--i only read the first page of shapira's complaint/article, while i finished the gawker defense in a few minutes. and i'm much more addicted to slog than most other traditional news sources. but should i be concerned about the day when there are no articles for gawker to link to? and does the gawker staff have health insurance?
8
Best part of the Post's reporting right here:
David Marburger is a First Amendment lawyer who, along with his economist brother Daniel, is stirring a minor controversy in the blogosphere with a proposal that might empower newspapers, or any news organization that spends the bulk of its budget on original reporting. They want to amend the copyright law so that it restores "unfair competition rights" -- which once gave us the power to sue rivals if our stories were being pirated. That change would give news organizations rights that they could enforce in court if "parasitic" free-rider Web sites (the heavy excerpters) refused to bargain with them for a fee or a contract. Marburger said media outlets could seek an order requiring the free-rider to postpone its commercial use or even hand over some advertising revenue linked to the free-riding.
---
Fucking A.
Fuck Gawker. Shitty writers doing shitty work for REAL shitty pay.
David Marburger is a First Amendment lawyer who, along with his economist brother Daniel, is stirring a minor controversy in the blogosphere with a proposal that might empower newspapers, or any news organization that spends the bulk of its budget on original reporting. They want to amend the copyright law so that it restores "unfair competition rights" -- which once gave us the power to sue rivals if our stories were being pirated. That change would give news organizations rights that they could enforce in court if "parasitic" free-rider Web sites (the heavy excerpters) refused to bargain with them for a fee or a contract. Marburger said media outlets could seek an order requiring the free-rider to postpone its commercial use or even hand over some advertising revenue linked to the free-riding.
---
Fucking A.
Fuck Gawker. Shitty writers doing shitty work for REAL shitty pay.
9
Of course, Gawker's retort clocks in at 825+ words. Why so long? Because they take the time to back up their opinion with the relevant facts. The actual portion of their rant that, to use their words against Shapiro, is "the closest I can come to anything resembling a point of view" amounts to eight words in the last graph, itself flowery language: "The threat is coming from inside the building". Shit, Gawker, you could just have twittered that. And as we all know, Twitter is going to kill blogs.
The even greater irony is that Slog only posted a one-sentence paraphrase of that self-aggrandizing 825-word flamebait.
The even greater irony is that Slog only posted a one-sentence paraphrase of that self-aggrandizing 825-word flamebait.
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