"Fifteen years ago, if I had had a great idea for a magazine it would most likely never see the light of day unless, by some near miracle, a major publishing company decided to back me. Now, if I have an idea for a new media property, I can find some open source content management system and for very little money have my own Web site." - Marta Wohrle Like many of my blogging contemporaries, I'm at a four-year crossroads with the development of Girl With a Satchel – to fully professionalise the blog, to take it beyond its hobby-horse beginnings into a fully blown media brand, might mean turning it into a slick looking website with all the SEO bells and whistles, which, of course, has been on my To Do List for some time.
While change is necessary in the ever-evolving online world, there is always the risk of losing some of what people come to blogs for in this quest to streamline, to profit, to appeal to a potentially wider audience.
"Websites" still have more cache than "blogs", which continue to carry a little stigma despite their very format being adapted by mainstream media (while many journos now infuse their work with the first-person voice, not too many sign off with "Yours truly", one element of GWAS that often makes me cringe!).
What's more, a blogger can have high standards without high traffic, quality without quantity, accountability without "sell-ability", job satisfaction without page traction... It's an ideological debate as well as financial, aesthetic and journalistic, and I'd love to hear your feedback.
Meanwhile, Min columnist Marta Wohrle, president of Accord Media, publisher of Truth In Aging and other digital content titles, and former senior vice president, digital media, for Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., has written an excellent reflective column on blogging for Min.
Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel
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