Get it? Got it. Set it!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, been hectic. In fact, hectic doesn't even begin to describe it, because he has too many other things to do. For my part, I've even taken to setting an alarm clock in the morning, which can't be healthy.

Since I've been working on not-very-bloggable stuff, I'll just use this post to rant about something that's been gnawing on a nerve ending somewhere inside of me for a while now.

Namely: what is the deal with the "blogs" on major newspaper websites?

As far as I understand, blogs are basically a way to publish a "column" type thing on the web, with text and pictures, without the vast expense for printing and distribution that column-publishing required before the internets, or any effort with html or hosting or whatnot that web-publishing required in the early days of the interwebs.

I can think of three types of people who benefit from this:
1) travellers who want to keep their peeps informed of what they're up to and/or generally talk shit, as a substitute for the old nights at the pub;
2) very very niche markets not warranting a real magazine, such as moss collecting, or collecting Ian Moss albums;
3) people who wish they were journalists but lack the talent and/or connections to get a paying job as one.

None of these are held to particularly high standards of writing or content by anyone. To do so would be unrealistic.

But now all sorts of newspapers are publishing "blogs" on their websites. Obviously, they don't lack the resources to publish real columns, so whats it all about? My opinion: its just an excuse to lower editorial/writing standards, which they've been doing bit by bit for years. I think it has been a dream of newspapers for a long time now to slump to internet levels of quality and story-research, and they've finally found the perfect excuse. It's not an article, it's a blog!

Remember the old joke that asks what's black and white and re(a)d all over? Champagne comedy in its time, I'm sure you'll all agree. But is it just a hilarious joke? or is there something more? Is it any coincidence that now that newspapers are published in colour, they're not worth reading at all? Hmmm....?

Case in point in all this is, of course, the Sydney Morning Herald, which has turned into the Daily Telegraph so gradually that we barely noticed it happening.