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Accomplishment of a Thousand

December 8th 2009 04:53
1000
Sydney Star Observer Reaches its 1000th Edition This Week


In an era when gay papers are dropping like Calvins, thirty years and a thousand editions is a pretty impressive record. Longevity, however, is no guarantee of survival.

Some, like the UK Pink Paper, need a change of name, as they’re now internet-only. Some have vanished altogether, like the Washington Blade, after more than forty years of publication. Gay City News in New York has been without a competitor since July.


The virus ravaging print media is the internet and no one – not even Rupert Murdoch – has so far come up with a cure. Pay per view doesn’t work. Subscriptions don’t work. And advertising doesn’t work – at least, not well. Online display ad rates are low, and the small ads that originally built a free gay press have gone to dating sites. Being online pushes up costs and workload, and diminishes hard copy take-up.

Gay papers are trapped in a vice – and I don’t mean the fun kind. They must be online, not just to provide story ideas for lazy mainstream journalists to steal without attribution, but also to reach people too remote, too isolated, too scared, too closeted, to ever come within a cooee of a printed copy.

And they must provide news. Anyone can offer opinions, and thousands of bloggers do, but only paid, professional journalists generate original news content.

But do we need professional GAY journalists? Surely the mainstream press report gay issues now?


Remember Michael Neal case? After briefly flirting with responsible factual reportage, the Melbourne Age (generally reckoned as sympathetic and relatively objective on gay issues), went on an tabloid binge with unsubstantiated stories of ‘bug-chasers’ and ‘gift-givers’– for which, incidentally, the journalist concerned won awards and promotion. The Sydney Morning Herald and the Murdoch press followed suit.

In case you missed the point, straight journalists and mainstream papers have a different agenda, and it’s not about giving us a fair shake of the sauce bottle. Not if that might get in the way of a Walkley.

We still need a gay press, with gay journalists, working in media that are not driven solely by the needs of advertisers, or a rich owners need to find his boyfriends something to do.

Gay & Lesbian Community Publishing Limited, publishers of Sydney Star Observer, is “owned by members of and operated for the gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and queer communities”. The shareholders are all intimately connected with other GLBTI organisations, giving the paper a unique relationship to the community it serves, and a unique strength.

And in keeping with the current fashion for modern, long-term, stable gay relationships, we’ve also started a family, giving birth to Southern Star in October 2008. Who knows what else is to come?

Maybe this is just a phase we have to get through. Maybe technology will rescue what it's currently destroying. E-readers are becoming available, combining the convenience and portability of print – and the look of the printed page - with the immediacy and reach of the internet. They’re not quite good enough yet, but could they become the platform that will carry papers like the twin Stars through the next thousand editions? Watch this space.
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Making Money Online

November 1st 2009 03:18
Show me the money!
Show me the money! (pic: Knox News)


Rupert Murdoch has been complaining of late that no-one will pay him for all the stuff he puts online. For once in my life, I sympathise with the Great Satan of Media. Three times in as many weeks I’ve been asked to work on websites, and none of them want to pay.

Site 1- Australia: This lot actually got in touch with me and asked me to come in for a meeting.

“Write what you like! Consolidate content from anywhere on the web. We have a terrific technical team, we’ll help you create amazing video blogs and make really cool podcasts.”

“We're offering you a partnership. We know there’s a huge gay market out there, the advertisers will come if we can tap it, you can help us do that.”

Well, sorry guys, I say, but the only gay thing on the web that makes money is sex, and I don’t really do sex. You know, a buff shirtless 20yr old in a jockstrap making a gay video blog might hit the big time like you want, but a rising-60 bear with a belly and manboobs – not so much.

“Oh, it can’t be anything to do with sex. It’s got to be tasteful. Serious. And classy. You have the right profile. You’re quality. We have top flight blue chip advertisers raring to go, begging us to get this off the ground - but they won’t be associated with anything involving gay sex. All you have to do is figure out what will bring in the punters – without sex – and we’ll bring in the advertisers. And we’ll split the revenue with you.”

Yeah, right. But there's no salary. So what if I work the aforementioned man-boobs off for nothing, create the site, and the punters and therefore the advertisers don’t come? How long am I expected to work for nothing before you show me the door – with nothing? No deal.

Site 2 - USA: This was via email.

“Come over to us and we’ll market and promote you around the world. We’ll get you a book deal. A movie deal. You could be the next big thing. We’ll split the book royalties. We’ll take care of all the movie deals.”

See Site 1: Writer works for nothing, unless the site makes money, in which case he hands over most of it to publisher. No deal.

Site 3 – Aus: Gay.

Has ‘vacancies’ for writers, photographers. Sells ad space but doesn’t pay for content – unless you count tickets, CDs, DVDs for reviewers. Otherwise it’s just a namecheck. Most of the writing is superficial rewrites of stuff found elsewhere on the net, without acknowledgement or links. Would 'love' me to write for them. What’s known as a ‘vampire’ site.

Site 4 – Aus: I'll give you 3 guesses.

“We’ll give you your own blog on our site with its own domain name. We’ll promote your work. Set up a Google ad account and we'll split the ad revenue with you.”

But they retain ownership of the domain name, and if you don’t keep up a regular publishing schedule, they take it off you and give it to someone else. And so far I’ve yet to see any promotion outside the main hosting site. Or any ad revenue.

On the other hand, it’s a handy and cost-free online presence that can be used to promote and showcase my work with minimum effort. Deal – for now.

The Price of Vanity

All these sites have willing mugs who work for them for nothing, just for the thrill of seeing their names online. Sure, there’s a (vanishingly small) chance the odd one will be talented and lucky enough to be plucked from obscurity, but most of them will just get plucked.

This is called ‘vanity publishing’, and it’s been around in the real world for years. People with more time and/or money than sense have always been able to have their work published at their own expense, while making money for someone else. And the publishers always promise to promote the work – but only enough to avoid being sued for breach of contract.

So the next time you see an ad for writers/bloggers/vloggers that doesn’t offer a salary, or you're offered a 'partnership' in a site, just remember, someone will be making money out of this or the site wouldn’t exist. But it won’t be you. Good luck.
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Panic attack!

May 3rd 2009 03:13
Panic

To be a proper journalist you have to go about creating panic or you’re not doing the job properly. The problem is, you’re all panicking about so many things already, it’s getting hard to find a niche. But I'll do my best.

The world financial system is melting down, we’re all going to be thrown out of work to starve in the streets, and our houses will soon be worth nothing.

No? OK, I think we’re all bored with that one, at least until we see the Federal Budget.

OK, er . . . . let’s try this. The climate’s shot to pieces, every summer everything will burn to ash, except for the bits that under water ‘cos the ice-caps are melting and the Barrier Reef is rotting away.

Also old hat? OK, how about if I throw in this?

The only tourists are going to be rich fat gun-crazed Yanks in safari suits shooting crocodiles with sub-machine guns.

Better? Hmmm . . . . I think I’m getting the hang of this!

So, you like the nasty foreigner thing . . . .

So, how about a couple of hundred Afghans and Sri Lankans in leaky boats, determined to get out of their wrecked countries and go somewhere relatively peaceful, uncorrupt and orderly (unless they end up in Sydney, but that’s another story), where they can make a living and look after their families. Using all their guile, ingenuity and resources to get round all the road blocks put in their way, like the little matter of there being nowhere in Afghanistan they can actually apply for Aussie visas.

Pretty good, huh?

Shock horror, tough, hard-working, determined, ingenious law and order loving people coming to Oz to start businesses. We’ll all be ruined!! Send out the gunboats! Reopen the concentration camps!

Yes, that’s got you all going nicely. Hey, you know, this could get to be fun! What? You want more?

I know! Pig plague!! Perfect!! It’s got everything: nasty dirty foreigners flying in with nasty foreign disease caught from nasty dirty foreigners - who live with pigs!!

Could it get any better? Wow, best panic ever!

What do you mean, everyone else is doing it already? Rats, just when I thought I was on to something. Oh well – back to the drawing board.

I know. Let’s legalise gay marriage!!
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Diary of a President

March 6th 2009 23:45
ChillOut Festival


Thursday:
ChillOut starts tomorrow and we finally get some action from Tourism Victoria, Premier John Brumby and Tourism Minister Tim Holding. After days of pushing for a declaration that it’s perfectly safe to come to Daylesford, the CFA area commander finally says yes, and even encourages people to come. That breaks the dam. Word starts to go out from the government – it’s time to go back to the bush – and we get buried in a laundry list of a press release covering everything from Opera in the Vines to the Bullarto Vintage Tractor Pull


[ Click here to read more ]
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Ian Thorpe is not gay, really

January 30th 2009 04:46
Clumsy PR fuels continued speculation

Not Ian Thorpe
Not Ian Thorpe

[ Click here to read more ]
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The Age of low quality

September 3rd 2008 03:50
Press Gang
A bunch of tabloid reporters

News is a strange profession. What makes news, and who decides, is even stranger. This musing is prompted by developments at my favourite Australian newspaper, The Age, which is in strife over the slashing of journalists jobs by the bean counters.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Journalists prise China open

August 15th 2008 00:47
Free Tibet Protest London
Free Tibet Protest in London


The Chinese government is discovering what it means to be open to press scrutiny, and are not enjoying the process much, it would seem


[ Click here to read more ]
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Shane Crawford
Shane Crawford, the gay-friendly Hawks star - even appeared on Joy 94.9


John Michael Howson, speaking on 3AW, asked how the hell Jeff Kennett became embroiled in the Ken Campagnolo saga, leading to his reported comments painting gay men as sexual predators and akin to paedophiles


[ Click here to read more ]
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