Jason Calacanis' Retirement Could Save Newspaper

[Jason Kintzler]

A couple of weeks ago Jason Calacanis announced he was retiring from blogging. This, from a guy who many consider the catalyst to professional blogging. In his follow up email (re-posted here by TechCrunch), Jason details his reasoning and shares some insight into why he prefers the 'more intimate' approach.

As you can imagine, there were plenty of critics who cried, "publicity stunt" and others who felt inspired by his change in direction. I may be naive to the seedy underworld of mega-blogging, but I tend to identify with Jason and see his message as valid. These days it seems it's become more about getting dugg, stumbled, tossing out the link-bait and hoping people will reddit. And as Jason points out, the trolls can ruin an honest post meant for a specific audience with a one-line below-the-belt shot without being held accountable.

Email as the Medium
The thing that really resonated with me wasn't the trouble with blogging, it was the promise for something more genuine. His direct-to-reader delivery via email subscription is nothing new, but the reason may be.

From Jason's email: You and I now have a direct relationship, and I’m cutting the mailing list off today so it stays at ~1,000 folks. I’ll add selectively to the list, but for now I’m more interested in a deep relationship with the few of you have chosen to make a commitment with me. Perhaps some of you will become deep, considered colleagues and friends–something that doesn’t happen for me in the blogosphere any more.

Much of my inspiration for doing this comes from what I’ve seen with John Brockman’s Edge.org email newsletter. When it enters my inbox I’m inspired and focused. I print it, and I don’t print anything. The people that surround him are epic, and that’s my inspiration–to be surrounded by exceptional people.

It's not about Blogging, It's about Community
What hasn't been mentioned here is that it's about community. The thing that's been lacking from the mega-blog is niche community. Criticism from like-minded people is, in my opinion, welcomed and validated- it's the disengaged fly-bys that can take the wind out of good conversation.

My blog is intertwined with our network. While not every user is a member of the media or a PR pro, so far, they are all there to be engaged. These are the same people who would indeed subscribe to my posts via email much like those Jason Calacanis has now.

Newspapers Take Note: Community is Key
Stop wasting time worrying about what's happening as more sites try to spam "news" to more people. Stop waiting for the implosion and think about your specific newspaper community. I've blogged about social media opportunities for newspaper before (See: Newspapers Still Missing The Benefits of Social Media) and I will continue to do so in hopes of offering some perspective to a medium I value, and was once a part of.

If the blogger of all bloggers isn't satisfied with the the state of blogging, maybe it's a hint at the direction newspaper and other mainstream media should be looking. It's happening already. See how The News Journal in Wilmington, Deleware has been able to inject online community into real world community and benefit from engaging with readers online and off. See how David Cohn and Spot.us are introducing the concept of Community Funded Reporting.

Like Jason, people will tire of the fast paced, disengaged methods of news delivery happening today. Most people still want to curl up with a book, have cup of coffee over a newspaper or read a magazine on the plane. They especially want to be engaged in what's happening close to home, in their community, whether it's online or offline -posted on a bulletin board in a hallway.

That said, there are methods that seem to be popping up that could also bridge the gap and help "personalize" the experience. I applaud Jason Goldberg's approach with his newest game-changer SocialMedian. Those of you on PitchEngine received special invites early on, but it's certainly worth a return visit if you haven't been there in a while. Socialmedian is a social news network that connects people with personalized news and information.

"Our hunch is that people with common topical interests can help each other filter and discover personally relevant news." It's a great formula and seems to be picking up speed.

Retrospect

Social media shouldn't be about eliminating tradition. In some cases, it's going to happen, but in a survival of the fittest kind of manner. In other cases, like the launch of PitchEngine in a few days, social media may help bring traditional media closer to next generation methods of engagement. Whatever the scenario, the game is changing and it's yet to be determined how it will end up.

Maybe Jason Calacanis can put his emotion into keeping newspaper a "more intimate" thing than a blog post. Or maybe newspaper should look at why it's working. Hmmm...sign up to receive my local news of choice via email or some other easy-method of delivery? Seems pretty simple doesn't it? Generate ad revenue by targeting readers with specialized interests? Could be a no-brainer. Thank you Jason Calacanis for shedding some light on the state of media.

Original post on the PitchEngine Network.

[David Politis (aka "Poppa P")]

Jason:

Interesting development (re. Calacanis "retiring" from blogging). Was it a publicity stunt? Probably. Does he intend to move forward with this anti-blogging, permission-focused email/e-newsletter approach? I suspect he does.

Calacanis is in an interesting position in that, assuming he's smart (and he is), he probably still has a few shekels lying around from his AOL payday, which means he can take the time to experiment and not have to worry about generating revenue right away.

I also suspect that he may be onto something -- creating and driving a tightly focused community that is already "into" the Jason Calacanis way of thinking and writing. And depending upon how this effort evolves, it may become a collaborative form of affinity commentary and reporting -- a new medium where the sum is truly greater than the individual parts.

Re. the apparent and impending death of newspapers . . . there's a reason why I subscribe to the two main daily newspapers in the Salt Lake Valley (the more liberal Salt Lake Tribune and the decidedly conservative Deseret News).

One, I find it immensely interesting to see the differing slants the two papers will often take on the exact same stories.

Two, both papers already serve as news filters with their editors deciding what local, regional, national and international stories make it into print at what size/length and where they're published within the respective papers.

Three, given that both papers are already filtering the news into four to six sections of print, I enjoy scanning headlines, looking for stories and opinion pieces that are interesting to me.

And four, at the end of the day, all news is still local. The news either happens in my neighborhood, my town, my state, my country or on my planet. And I'm always looking for news that affects and effects me, things/issues that I'm interested in and people and places that I know or want to know.

Successful publishers and journalists have always focused on reporting/telling the stories of the most interest to their readers, listeners and/or viewers. The greater connection publishers can create with their target audience members (their communities) the greater success they will achieve and the longer they will be in business.

Technologies then just become tools for helping publishers reach their communities and doing so in faster, more efficient and more effective ways. Hence, the printing press enabled Benjamin Franklin to quickly print more broadsheets, while also enabling him to include more "news" on each page. The result was a growing business.

The bigger, better and faster printing presses of the past several decades have enabled the same thing. (Think USA Today with its now nationwide printing & distribution network.)

Should newspapers be publishing stories, follow-up and commentaries online in a 24X7 world? Absolutely.

Should they be encouraging columnists, reporters and editors to blog? Absolutely?

Should they be embracing new social media technologies (i.e., Twitter & Ning, for example) to create greater connections with their community members? Duh!

And, last but not least, should they invite and encourage community reporting? Scary as it may sound, "Yes."

Is Calacanis onto something? Probably.

Is there a glimmer of an idea within his new plans that could/can benefit newspapers and their publishers. I believe the answer to this question is also "Yes."

Keep on keeping it real, Jason K.

Sincerely,

David ("Poppa P") Politis