Print Media On Blogging
People love this blogging thing. So much that the print folks wanna give it some credit.
Style Weekly published some thoughts through this week’s “Short Order”:
It’s difficult enough to open a small business in Richmond. And it’s more difficult still to fight the now-inevitable bloggery that follows, with every self-styled critic weighing in on matters big and mundane.
Those critics can not only squelch a squeamish customer base, but also make it more challenging for owners. Two new businesses made their much-delayed debuts last week and bloggers were breathless within hours. Should owners respond or ignore the online commentary?
Well, as the804.com rebuts:
[T]here seems to be a slight twinge of elitism in using the term “with every self-styled critic“, as if the opinions of bloggers are somehow less legitimate than, say, a Style-styled critic. As for this angle of being the friend of the “small businessman,” in the past, Style has had no problem ripping into restaurants and, thereby, their bottom lines with negative reviews (Baccus and Down Under recently come to mind). That feels like a double standard.
Well said.
The Times-Dispatch, meanwhile, has a couple of questions for bloggers. Which bloggers? Well, while they identify the sites, they don’t actually come out and say who exactly they’re speaking to. Is this a veiled critique on the art of blogging or just shoddy writing?
Anyways, first they wanna talk West Of Boulevard News and then they turn to Fan District Hub. Both are worthwhile and let ya know what the brains behind each are thinking. Hopefully someone at RTD is taking notes and will be tweaking their “community blogs” section accordingly. Or closing it in lieu of the real deals.
UPDATE: The WTOBN.net interview was with Sam, the FDHub.net interview was with F.T. Rea. This is the kind of crack reporting and thorough follow-up you’ve come to expect from the “Best Political Blog In Richmond”. That’s right. Denial is awesome.
UPDATE 2: Deveron Timberlake responds with a clarification of her thoughts in the Style Weekly column.
Style Weekly printed comments from http://wotbn.net for the Short Order piece without any attribution. Very professional.
Thanks for your thoughts about my column this week on bloggery. We printed the comment attributed to Paul Blacker, which was followed by a separate interview. If you’d like further attribution for wotbn.net, we will run a correction in the Letters section.
The story is not to decry bloggers their rising influence and relevance in our community. A previous column noted that it is the blog writers who frequently break the news before mass media. You can bet the smart reporters and editors are regularly reading blogs, occasionally responding to them, and clarifying their points if misconstrued. And then “breaking” the stories.
To my mind, the difference between often-anonymous blog critics and Style critics is not inconsequential — our studied opinions are expressed two to three months after an opening, not within the early buzz period that owners work hard to build. We are proud that our critics are national award winners and professional writers whose work is, to most readers, useful. Sometimes readers reject our material entirely, which is why I’m interested in hearing criticism, preferably constructive but sometimes vicious, and publishing it. And responding to it. If you’d like to call me for more discussion on this, please do so. 358-0825 ext.356. thanks, deveron timberlake, food and drink editor, style weekly
[...] many of you have already seen, there have been a number of responses to Deveron Timberlake’s latest article that took a swat at food bloggers. The [...]
Deveron, thanks for the response and clarification.