meta-blogging for money

Some folks are a little miffed about Mark Lawson’s patronising dismissal of blogging in Saturday’s Guardian. The odd thing about the article is was that it was like a bad blog piece. Feeling a bit blank for inspiration, Lawson whizzed around a few blogs for ten minutes before producing something lame.

But it’s business, not personal. Everyone knows that opinions are like arseholes – they get red and inflamed when subjected to stimulation. Oh, no. Everybody has one. Yes, that’s it. Since there are no barriers to entry, barriers have to be created in order to preserve the incomes of opinion-mongers. And creating such a barrier makes an excellent pretext for a paid opinion piece. Lawson was writing for his executives, not his readers. Nothing to see here, now how about those expenses? Lunch doesn’t pay for itself you know.

I think we should respond in kind. Take a look at Tim Worstall’s latest Britblog roundup. You’ve got opinions from the left and opinions from the right. You’ve got people who know what they’re talking about because they actually do the relevant jobs. You’ve got takes on the burning issues of the day, wry, sideways looks at life, quirky personal items. You have the taut and the lush, chuckles and tears – all the happy bollocks that runs rampant across every Sunday paper.

Let’s sell out. Let’s form the Cheap Pundit Alliance. Let’s offer Her Majesty’s Press opinions on absolutely everything, for exactly half the going rate. Let’s subject punditry to the iron law of the division of labour. Let’s cut out the waste and the fat.

Opinion is probably going to end up outsourced to a shack in Bangalore before too long anyway. So it makes sense to exploit the gap in the market while it exists.

In other news, my referrers tell me that I’ve reached an average of 100 visitors per day. I am now the Official Voice of Middle England. My wry, sideways looks at life continue to grow in esteem with people who like their looks at life wry and sideways-ish.

Comments

[Phil]

Let’s form the Cheap Pundit Alliance. Let’s offer Her Majesty’s Press opinions on absolutely everything, for exactly half the going rate.

I thought that was what we were doing...

I dunno, y'know, I really dunno. With one exception, every significant freelance gig I've ever got (repeat business excluded) has come from personal contacts, either directly or at one remove - either I knew the people giving the work out, or they knew someone I'd already worked for. I've just never got that close to the people handing out the Opinion Page gigs - and having thousands of words of finely-honed verbiage online (and literally several regular readers) isn't likely to change that. Besides, your proposal is vulnerable to the Time-Traveller Objection - if we could undercut Johann Hari, surely someone would have done it already...

[jamie]

"I dunno, y'know, I really dunno. With one exception, every significant freelance gig I've ever got (repeat business excluded) has come from personal contacts..."

Mine too. The difference here is that there's never been a formal offer (there isn't now, obviously!) made by a group of people whose talents and capabilities, such as they are, are there for all to see.

I think the time traveller problem is adequately explained by the fact that success in the media is consequent on personal relations and on general inertia - it's easier to phone someone you already know.

On the other hand blogging does a lot to knock out the head end of punditry, undermining the notion that you have to buy a paper to read your favourite pundit and leaving newspapers burdened with pointlessly expensive staff. There is an opening of sorts here. Whatever the practical issue, I can imagine a certain frisson felt by a regular columnist who turns in his column and sees his/her editor reading a favourite blog.

Anyway, I was just taking the piss...

[Tim Worstall]

Half the going rate?
Given the Mark Lawson standard we should be getting twice it, and would be incredibly cheap at that price.

[jamie]

Damn - I never did learn to bargain properly in the business sense.