A few weeks ago, the gang at blogHOUSTON announced some changes for the blog. I have to say I really like them.
This is one of the blogs that got me blogging (along with Laurence Simon). In fact I interviewed Kevin Whited and Anne Linehan of blogHOUSTON (and also uber blogger Charles Kuffner) about the Houston blogging scene way back when (and months before I started this blog in late 2005).
Kevin Whited answered some questions for me about his blog's changes and how the scene has developed over the five years he's been posting on blogHOUSTON.
Mike McGuff: You've gone with super short posts with no titles, why?
Kevin Whited: Part of it was just personal. I think both Anne Linehan and I were getting tired of the customary Intro-Link-Blockquote-Analysis-Conclusion style for every single post, whether it was just a news item we wanted to call attention to, or some issue we wanted to analyze, or some pol we wanted to mock. That style of post takes considerable time to put together, which usually left it for early morning or late in the evening, when the topic might not even be that timely anymore, so it was getting to be the case where a lot of potential posts just seemed like too much trouble at the (literal) end of the day. Plus that style didn't really fit all the sorts of posts we wanted to do.
So we started thinking more about how to structure the sort of blog we wanted to do (linky, pithy, timely) and still retain the ability to post something longer. We looked around at some of the blogs we like that were doing posts like that. Of course, Instapundit is the blogger who popularized this linky/pithy/timely format, and even though Professor Reynolds gets tons of accolades, he probably still doesn't get enough credit for his unique style. Locally, we liked the pithy commentary Cory Crow was offering on his linkposts at Lose an Eye (the 2009 Houston Press Best Blog) and now Harris County Almanac. So we borrowed a bit from both and just decided to go with a stream of local "stuff" that interests us. I don't know what we are doing qualify as "blog" posts anymore! Seriously, do they?
We got the headlines out of the way except as reference matter -- since the commenting is handled by forum software, the posts needed a subject anchor for the forum. But on the main page, the thought was that headlines were unnecessary clutter that got in the way of the daily stream. That's borrowed from Instapundit because I think it really works for this sort of posting. And for the occasional longer post or guest post/essay, we still have the "old" blog, with headlines and such. When something goes up there, we'll link from the stream.
MM: What caused this shift in blogging style to happen?
KW: When we first started blogHOUSTON, I'm not so sure readers followed links as well as I think they do now even though we've always been pretty link heavy. Part of that was probably the deep excerpting that we sometimes did, and that many bloggers still do (tiptoeing up to the point of copyright abuse in some instances). Even in the old format, we were doing local blog post roundups, we also had a sidebar for those links, and we had added local news headlines and blogroll pages that attract a surprising number of visitors. Readers just seem a little more inclined these days to follow organized sets of links now. Maybe the rise of Twitter has influenced this. Or maybe our attention spans are just shorter than ever! *laugh*
So in addition to us just personally wanting to do more of that style of blogging, we actually thought readers might be receptive to it. So far, so good. Nobody has emailed that they hate the new format.
MM: I can see there are already a lot more daily posts, how many do you think will publish in a day? Will they happen all through the day?
KW: Assuming we're not just overwhelmed with "real life" or traveling or some such, I would think we could knock out 8-12 posts per weekday pretty easily, although that partly depends on the news cycle and other bloggers. If it's a slow news cycle, we aren't going to be posting just to have something up or to fill some silly quota. Weekends will probably be slower.
We'll likely post a little through the day. Obviously, our employers aren't paying us to be posting to our blogs during the workday, but popping out a short post during a coffee or lunch break doesn't strike me as much different as workers rushing out to suck on the cancer sticks or chat at the coffee bar or what have you. Still, the bulk of the posts would probably come during non-work hours I would think.
MM: You mention blogging with more attitude, what does this mean?
KW: One of my mentors at UH, the late great Ross Lence, was famous (or perhaps infamous) for giving undergrad and grad students essay questions of dissertation depth that he required us to answer in no more than three pages. That forced students to get to the point. And I am thankful to that magical man to this day for teaching me to economize my writing and analysis. I think our new format is going to force us to get to the point. A link post will be a link post, but if we're trying to make a point, I think it will come through pretty clearly. More opinion, much less filler!
MM: What kind of changes will we see on the blog when you go to the mentioned new software?
KW: Obviously, the current layout is kind of dated, and kind of busy. So I think as we move to new software, it gives us a perfect opportunity to offer readers a freshened layout. I hand roll these things and haven't even started yet, so all I can say is the goal will be a cleaner and less cluttered layout. There will be big benefits on the publishing side, but I hope to offer a few new nice wrinkles for our little community. I just ask that folks have patience. As you know, these rollouts take crazy amounts of time!
MM: Since you first started the blog, how have things changed for bloggers and the media over the years in your opinion?
KW: I'll just speak to the hyperlocal, because that's always been our niche. I think when we started, local blogs were much more personal and much less political. Now, there aren't so many indy/personal blogs that focus on politics, or at least local politics. They have been displaced by folks who have taken a much harder partisan line with their blogging. That's disappointing to some extent, because I think political parties have ample resources to get out their message. I don't really care to read local blogs that just pound away on the message of a political party, whatever the party might be. I don't hide the fact that I'm a libertarian/conservative/post-objectivist (good luck figuring that combo out!), but we just try to present an alternative (when compared to mainstream corporate publications like the Chron or Houston Press) perspective with a focus on traditional values and transparent, limited government.
To broaden the focus just a bit -- I hope that blogs and mainstream media have become slightly less combative since we got blogHOUSTON running five years ago. I know some of the higher-ups at the Chron ordered a scrubbing of blogHOUSTON and that Dwight Silverman and Dean Betz apparently went along (sadly enough) because some higher-ups don't get new media, but they clearly don't comprehend what our occasional criticism was about. We just want smart local news coverage! And like any good consumer, we complain when it isn't good. I hope that most good local journalists who stumble across the blog understand that we are obsessive about good (and bad) local news coverage.
MM: Anything else you want to add?
KW: Just a BIG thank you for this conversation and the blogging you do. You did great, sometimes unrecognized, work for KTRK-13, as well as your ongoing work on the Mike McGuff blog. It's a go-to blog for Houston media, and we appreciate the attention you've always given our little alt-media indy blog.
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