Writers Find Blogging To Be a Stressful Method of Reporting 199
Andrew Feinberg points out a New York Times story about the stress put upon prolific bloggers to maintain a constant flow of content in order to satisfy both consumers and advertisers in the information age. When breaking a story first can generate thousands more page views and clicks, many bloggers are finding themselves chained to their computers, worrying that they'll miss something important if they step away. Quoting:
" 'I haven't died yet,' said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. 'At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable,' he said."
fat and rich (Score:4, Insightful)
I gained 30 lbs once, and I've since dropped the weight, but I have nothing to show for it. I wonder if we'll get an article here soon about how executives making millions of dollars are stressed out.
Let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think that's the point they are trying to make. I think that what they were trying to get across was that blogging has become just as difficult to keep up with as traditional media but instead of having a team of researchers working around the clock to handle news feeds, fact checking, etc, you have less than a handful of people doing the work that used to take many many more.
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:3, Insightful)
this is what happens when normal people start pretending to be geeks. the drama starts. I expect a FOX special report on this pretty soon. "Blogs: The Silent Killers of People Prone to Getting Fat After Sitting on Their Ass for a Long Time"
I don't hear the Slashdot crew whining about reporting news for over 10 years. I guess they really like what they really do and don't feel the need for guilttripping themselves
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to feel bad for him, but - as a small business owner with 5 employees and noticeably less than a million dollars in annual revenue - I just can't seem to get the tears going while I browse the 'net at lunch from my office.
Some cheese with that whine? (Score:3, Insightful)
I get a bit tired of people who complain about their job or life, yet never take the steps necessary to alleviate the cause of said complaints. It's your life. Take some responsibility for it. Exercise more. Take a well-needed vacation (and leave the damn computer at home)! Spend some quality time with family and friends. I'll bet that when you look back at your life, you won't regret spending a bit less time at the computer, staring at updating blogs.
I also tire of how certain media industries talk about themselves as relevant news... I see this happen in the mainstream media all the time (stories about the media), and I find it somewhat annoying. Blogging has the same sort of problem - many bloggers talk incessantly about blogging and other bloggers, since that's the topic they know best.
got enough adverts there, bud? (Score:5, Insightful)
How can people stand to go there on a regular basis?
This is a typical case of self control (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't really about blogging, it's about small business. Small, one man shops really are a drain on your life. You fear that if you close too early or open too late you'll miss that one big customer. Until you get big enough to spread the load, that will be the case.
A note for bloggers - you might want to move. There were two in that story - one in SF, one (I believe) in NY. Note: you're bloggers, nobody cares where you live and you can source from anywhere in the (US/NA/World). Based on the "all day and night at the keyboard" comments, these folks aren't getting their inside scoops from wandering the streets of the big technology cities. Might I suggest somewhere inexpensive, somewhere relaxing from which to blog. Make it within 100 miles of an airline hub if you do a lot of conferences. Office space in small towns is often $8/SF (per year) or less, and really good housing is actually affordable on 40k-50k/yr.
Re:fat and rich (Score:5, Insightful)
The greed behind thinking "I *must* make $100k+ to survive" is one of the many factors sending this industry down the toilet.
Re:Bloggers need better technology (Score:3, Insightful)
Content may be king but in this world, that content is user supplied and nearly anonymous. In order to make money off of content, you either have to be in the distribution side or form a cult of personality. In other words, build brand. In viral fashion, I have blogged [blogspot.com] on this.
No, you are wrong about that, money talks (Score:3, Insightful)
The greed behind thinking "I *must* make $100k+ to survive" is one of the many factors sending this industry down the toilet.
The more money you have coming in, the better off you'll be, it's that simple, and if you want to live cheap, then you probably wont be able to afford private school for your kids, and you might not be able to afford the best medical treatments or the best healthcare plan.
And let's be realistic, if you are single, most of the good women prefer a man who makes over $100k vs a man living in the middle of nowhere making $30k.
What kinda man do most dads tell their daughters to go for? The Lawyer, the Doctor, the CEO, the very sorta man who just happens to be making over $100k.
So what else is new? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing to see here, move along....
Re:No, you are wrong about that, money talks (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll agree with you that they should all strive to make six figures, but the reality is that the supply far exceeds the demand, and the talent pool is relatively shallow on average. I know people working just as hard, for just as many hours, usually at multiple jobs, to barely make ends meet. They do it because they don't have the training or ability to perform work that has a higher value in society. Heck, I could make more as a doctor or a lawyer, but I really like being an engineer and I spent my college money to become one.
As for finding a mate, they one's who are primarily interested in the size of your wallet are much more likely to leave you if that wallet ever deflates. I recommend finding one who would marry you if you lost every penny you had in the world. You'll be a lot happier than if you make $100k and had someone who constantly griped about not having enough money to live the way he or she likes.
I'm shocked (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of Maddox (Score:5, Insightful)
More bloggers need a sister site or blog-ring which will is updating during their 'off' hours.
It doesn't matter how much you love what you do if it burns you out or ruins your health.
Bit Melodramatic? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop mangling submissions. (Score:5, Insightful)
Please stop mangling my submissions. I did not submit to you the NYT article. I submitted the commentary to the NYT article which I wrote as a tech/public policy blogger reacting to the story. I find the way you guys now strip out submitters content and simply link to the "mainstream" article insulting and really makes me want to contribute to the discussions less and less. Why is my contribution less valuable than the NYT article? I think my commentary as an informed reader adds much to the discussion, and could have done quite a bit to improve the quality of comments here.
Is there a reason you no longer link to other people's submissions, only their mainstream media material?
I have been a Slashdot reader since 1998-1999. I read less and less. This is why. While I took the time to format, edit, and submit a story containing links to both the original NYT article and my own commentary [capitolvalley.net] you found it OK to strip out my entire submission and bury it in your worthless "firehose" and instead simply use me as a tip-off instead of a contributor to a community which I have been on for over ten years. Check my UID.
Is original (ie, not from "news sites") content no longer relevant on Slashdot? Hey Malda, Bates? Remember me? When did your site become a news aggregator instead of a place to discuss ideas, not just rehash articles from mainstream press? I don't feel like part of a community right now. I feel like I'm doing work just so someone else can take the credit. I spent a good amount of time writing that post that I linked you to, and you all but ignored it.
Why?
Andrew Feinberg
Angry Slashdot Veteran
Re:OK, here's a suggestion (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of Maddox (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the problem is:"The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue...in the last three years...turned his home into an office for him and four employees." Millions of dollars in three years and he's only got four employees and is working out of his home? Get an office and hire some more people you penny pinching fool! Or cash out, put the money in high interest savings, and work part time to supplement the $80k+ a year that $2 million will earn in interest. Look at the decades it takes to gross a few million as a plumber or mechanic or teacher or police officer and then tell me how hard it is to write a blog. Sure it might be more intense it the short term to maintain a highly successful blog, but it it allows you to retire in five years instead of a career of forty years, your sum total of stress and difficulty is going to be far far less in the end.
Re:Stop mangling submissions. (Score:4, Insightful)
Hey, it proves they actually do edit the articles (sometimes).
As to your question of "why" - the answer is obvious - you aren't the original source. You're also not the story. The real story isn't "what Andrew Feinberg thinks about bloggers dropping dead", it's about bloggers dropping dead.
We've all (okay, many of us) submitted stuff and seen it mangled. Big deal. You didn't see me complain when they ran a copy of my poll [slashdot.org], stripped of my text,on the front page [slashdot.org]. And no, I didn't submit it - someone else must have. They didn't ask if they could use it (and it was 100% original, not a blog posting about an article someone else wrote), but I didn't go crying about it - I was glad to be able to contribute something people thought was worthwhile.
You want to ear respect? Don't whine. I remember one time when a print reporter misquoted something I said - it came out in print the exact opposite, and she remembered what I had really said (this was in the middle of an election campaign). She promised to print a retraction, and I said "Don't bother - if anyone asks, I said it, and it was just a stupid slip of the tongue." From that day on, I was gold.
People make mistakes. People have honest differences of opinion. Editors edit. Shit happens. You can always blog about it, if you feel the need to vent. Just stop with the whining - it comes across as very unprofessional, low uid notwithstanding.
Then he is is not doing it right! (Score:3, Insightful)
First: four employees, if they are competent, should be enough to keep a blog going by themselves, relieving him of said stress. If not, he needs better people.
Second: if this is not parts of California or New York, he should be able to find those employees for an average of $50k each, making $200,000. Hire them right out of college; they will be ecstatic to be making that much.
Double that figure to cover things like office overhead and business expenses (he's in his HOME, and it is an INTERNET business!) and so on. Don't need very much in the way of benefits, either, in an office of 4 employees. That's $400,000.
That leaves $600,000 for him.
Okay, I have not figured in taxes and so on. But that should not make more of a difference than around 30% to 40% one way or another. I could live on an income of $360,000 a year. In fact I would probably be having a lot of fun.
And if I wasn't, I would hire a goddamned manager for $80,000 to $100,000 of that, and go play with my $260,000. Maybe invest in another company with my money and now completely SPARE time, and do the same all over again... $520,000 / year, and still no stress.
This guy needs a clue.