Chris's Wiki :: blog/snarkhttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/snark/?atomDWiki2024-02-26T21:44:35ZRecently changed pages in Chris's Wiki :: blog/snark.https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/snark/TradePressAndBlogscks<div class="wikitext"><p>Anyone who's read online tech magazines for very long knows that by and
large, the 'trade press' is pretty wretched. Bad articles abound; good
ones are rare. (Periodically Slashdot will rise in righteous indignation
over a particularly egregious example.)</p>
<p>Yet the field survives, and has no problem getting people to write more
articles for them. How? Follow the money.</p>
<p>Most of the free trade press exists to sell things: it sells reader
eyeballs to advertisers, and <em>it sells exposure to its authors</em>.</p>
<p>The money doesn't really care about good writing; cheap will do. If
you're still reading, it was good enough.</p>
<p>Online tech magazines have, from some angles, a fair resemblance to
blogs. The main difference is that blogs generally aren't selling reader
eyeballs (yet). I'm sure that any wide reader of tech blogs can name
a few that seem to exist mainly as a way for their authors to promote
themselves.</p>
<p>(Mind you, there's nothing really new under the sun. For years, people have
been churning out slick, ultimately superficial management advice books
whose main purpose in life was to draw customers to their consulting
firm.)</p>
<p>Me? I'm here to get better at writing, and maybe for the thrill of
pontificating in pseudo-public. (Don't discount this sort of motive, for
all of my cynicism; people are social creatures, and there's lots of
experimental evidence that we like to fly our flags in public.)</p>
</div>
The 'Trade Press' and blogs2024-02-26T21:43:52Z2005-09-02T08:25:33Z