Five years ago, the freewheeling snarky tone for blogs was the new cool.
Wonkette blogger Ana Marie Cox became iconic. She was in the stable of Gawker digital ranters. She went on to write for more mainstream media. Currently Gawker itself is struggling to find a voice which aligns with more serious times. Also, the medium of blogging has matured and mutated.
We allowed co-author of "Naked Conversations" Shel Israel to pontificate about everything, including that Amazon.com should have a "conversation" with him, on his blog. Somehow I get the notion he's not as influential in the "conversation" as he once was. Ditto for his co-author Robert Scoble, who is no longer penning advice at FAST COMPANY [one of the few new-media rags that's thriving aka selling lots of advertising.]
The lawyer-journalists at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Law Blog enjoyed sounding unlawyerly, perhaps too much. A plaintiff attorney one of those cool cats flew out to interview groused that the "kid" just kept checking his Blackberry and wasting his time with non-substantive questions. Since then, Law Blog has changed its editors twice. By a look at the content, I would predict more changes are in the cards.
No slouches at spotting the marketable, numerous others aped that tone. One has been the wildly successful legal tabloid Abovethelaw.com. The timing couldn't have been better. There's been a crash in the business of law. Those with $160,000 starting salaries are losing them or not getting them to begin with. Discontents obsessively send their leaks to David Lat at Abovethelaw.com. Since there is great unemployment and underemployment among lawyers, they have the time to comment prolifically on the site. The blogging community looked at Abovethelaw.com and saw that it was good aka getting advertising.
Here is today's post on Abovethelaw.com. It's about job cuts, which is no longer a new topic. And it's worn out its ability to garner gallows humor. Yet, the tone is still circa 2003. Why? Like shrewd businessman, why doesn't the leadership anticipate and prepare for shifts in what readers want and need?
This layoff topic is a good example. Abovethelaw.com made of it a cottage industry. Smart. For a long time. But, the shock is over. Yeah, the legal industry has downsized, won't ever be the same, and that's the way it is and will be. The emerging zeitgeist seems to be: Okay, what now for us highly educated, ambitious, debt-ridden best and brightest who have been ousted from Paradise? In short, time for more gravitas.
Will Abovethelaw.com join Gawker and the rest in being a fading phenomenon? It requires humility and plenty of sweat equity to keep a blog a source of value for readers. I know. I had to retrofit my legal blog http://lawandmore.typepad.com post the resolution of the much of the lead paint, public nuisance and personal injury, litigation. It wasn't and still isn't easy. We bloggers go from almost-famous to just another voice out there competing for attention.
(Please re-post)
Here is an organization who engages in cultural and personal terrorism.
Type "gawker outs cia officers" into google and you will see that this drug-user tabloid takes pride in playing a game of exposing undercover intelligence and law enforcement officers, an act which can cost those officers their lives. Not the sort of game America should tolerate. These people are un-American.
The staff of Gawker have publicly admitted that they were hired to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and sabotage the corporate exhibit booths in violation of the law.
This tabloid, Gawker Media, makes it's name out of being the first to show corporate prototypes. The staff of the tabloid try to get ahold of workers at technology companies and seek to influence them to lose "iphone" and other prototypes in public places where they can pick them up. Law enforcement believes that Jason Chen, Adrian Covert and Joe Brown, of Gawker, work together on this effort. The San Mateo Police Dept. has kicked in their staff's doors. Gabby Darbyshire of Gawker threatened to use legal and political intimidation to stall the San Mateo police department investigation.
They hack into phone systems and servers for their "scoops".
A hacker group has made a great showing of its recent break-ins to law enforcement computers. This group has deep roots and members around Gawker Media. Law enforcement suspects that at least one of the three names mentioned previously are members of this group.
The IRS is looking into a report that Nick Denton hides his money offshore and evades taxes with foreign accounts.
http://slyoyster.hypervocal.com/newsandpolitics/2010/why-nick-denton-is-an-asshole/
http://boycott-gawker-and-gizmodo.weebly.com
Posted by: Wendy Post | October 02, 2011 at 12:44 PM