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Feder: "Oh, great. Just what we needed: Four hours of radio consisting of bloggers no one knows about yapping about blogs no one cares about."
Now hear this: A 'crazy collision' of bloggers
blogs.vocalo.org - 1 week ago - 325 views
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This Feder guy's Vocalo blog is the most interesting new thing to read in Chicago. If he's down on CN, he probably thinks we're all morons, but the guy's consistently interesting.
He comes off as a crank in this post.
Without totally defending Rob, which he can do just fine by himself, I can say he's one of the more respected media watchers this town has ever seen. His thoughts on CN notwithstanding, Feder's voice still carries weight in a lot of the community that WGN would touch on a weekend.
Lots of people are "respected." That doesn't mean they're right.
Of course not. I'm not arguing one way or the other. Merely pointing to his creds for someone who seemed not to know who "this Feder guy" is.
I think he's kind of missing the point here. ChicagoNow isn't so much about "news" as it is about "content" with a heavy bent toward "entertainment & lifestyles."
You can't fault the Tribune Co. for putting a huge marketing push behind their blogging network. Given how much time/money they've dumped into it so far, they have to go big and drive traffic into the stratosphere. If they can use the airwaves to do this, then they will.
Now, he does have a great point about audience. Frankly, I don't listen to radio at all (although, I'll listen to streaming audio online if someone sends me a link), but I'm also the person most likely to read blogs. So, if the point is to find more people like me, then this might not be such a great idea. If the point is to find others NOT like me, then maybe this will help expand their visibility/name recognition.
Still, I don't think CN has enough of a brand OFFline to warrant a radio show just yet. It's still going to take some time.
But as you said, a lot of money has been put into CN. For the sake of Tribune Co., I certainly hope it works!
Does the Tribune company own WGN? If they want to push the Chicago Now brand over the airwaves, why wouldn't they just takeover a big block of something they already own?
Yes, it does.
People who write for Vocalo.org should not throw stones at others for making bad radio.
Sounds like Feder's worried about losing his 25-44 year old audience. Feel the emotional tenor of his presumptive assessment, Fellow Windy Citizens?
Moving anything that is online media off the Internet has rarely been a good idea. I may have to eat those words if the show based off the shitmydadsays Twitter is any good, but I will take my chances.
The piece really did sound like a cranky old dude ranting, but he did make a good point, who cares? First, radio is falling apart just like all other old media. This seems like a desperate attempt to bring the Internet audience off the Internet. And lets be honest, that isn't happening. The Internet is killing old media because it is really good at pulling everything onto a website or a torrent or whatever.
I also remember reading that the best radio shows are those with really amazing hosts. Now, radio shows have also done well with insane stuff happening. Put 5 hot headed bloggers (admit it, most bloggers love to flaunt their opinions) in a room and see what happens and broad cast it to everyone? Might be OK, but I am not leaving my computer to hear bloggers argue, there is enough of that everywhere online already.
Basically, all I am saying, don't be stupid Trib, make this a podcast.
I agree. Hopefully they podcast it, otherwise, what's the point? Does anyone actually OWN a radio (be it at home or at work) these days outside of their car? I know I don't, and when I do listen to radio, it's rarely AM radio.
But I don't think they're looking to move online audience to the airwaves -- I think it's the opposite. ChicagoNow is new, WGN Radio is old and established. I think this is designed to get radio listeners' attention and push them to visit a new Tribune property.
I discovered my alarm clock has a radio about a month ago when I accidentally set it to have radio go on for alarm rather than the wailing noise. Pretty sure there is one in my car too when i disconnect my iPod.
It's difficult enough to get TV audiences to visit web sites, unless there's a real careful integration into the content itself. (e.g. AR content in a TV show, etc.)
TV station Web traffic is MUCH lower than their newspaper counterparts, and radio station web traffic is even less. I'm curious to see if the radio audience will check it out.
See my comment here: http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/media/2009/11/12/now-hear-this-crazy... This could all just be about giving the bloggers more incentive to go with CN.
This could totally work as a podcast, and I might actually listen to it. Because I don't own a car, the only radio content I'll ever listen to is live streaming online or a podcast. I still follow a Minnesota sports talk show, but it's only because I podcast it every day.
I'm a bit surprised they didn't try a podcast FIRST.
"Go big or go home."
I think since the basic CN format is still in beta, it would especially be in beta on the air.
Would you create a CN show and put it on Saturday morning on WGN-TV? Or would you experiment with a video podcast?
Either
a) they think the product will be good enough
b) they just don't care and think people will listen to anything that's shot over the airwaves
c) their desire to spread the word about Chicago Now and give a carrot to their bloggers supercedes all else
My guess is a). They've got plenty of sharp people in that tower. I bet they've got a format sorted out that they're excited about.
For their sake, I sure hope so!
I like your faith in large institutions, Brad. How about all those big, growing newspaper companies!
Many journalism students long for employment in large, prestigous organizations. Trouble with that approach is that creative destruction is sweeping 'em aside in favor of Windy Citizen-style new media.
Not saying it's true so much as I think that's what they're thinking. Being a little charitable, of course.
Note, that's me up above. Posted as the admin account by accident.
I don't think they want to push internet readers offline at all. I think they want to push radio listeners and commuters to fire up ChicagoNow when they get bored at work. They just want to push the brand and get it out there.
Also, they're not paying their bloggers anything. They have to keep them happy by substituting money for exposure and airtime. Having a radio show where their blogs get mentioned will get a lot of them to stick around I'm sure.
I agree -- it's all about expanding the reach of Chicago Now.
To be fair, they do pay their bloggers by local pageviews. Something like $5 per 1000 local pageviews (or uniques, I can't remember).
Has the medium become the message, Nelson? Should we assume that there's merit to the on-line musings of any writer regardless of his or her education & experience?
I think the most important point Feder makes is that WGN is a 50k watt station. It has one of the biggest listening areas of ANY station in the country (I have family in Alabama that have listened to it). So why would they just throw a bunch of bloggers on the air instead of carefully programming the show? Now if WCPT (the Progressive station) did this, it would make sense. I don't think southern Will County gets coverage from WCPT, so why not experiment?
Perhaps it will be carefully programmed?
An even better point that comes from what you said, why are they putting bloggers from a site that only pays for local views if they are broadcasting to such a huge audience? The point of CN is that it is supposed to be local bloggers writing about local things.
What if that's not really the point of it?
I'm pretty sure the point of ChicagoNow is to expand its audience and make money.
Bloggers are cheap! Why not put them online AND the airwaves?
Because that SHOULD make them more expensive. If it isn't then that seems foolish for the bloggers.
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