So a little bird told me that the folks at our local newspaper think YKOnline is their competition.
Yes, you are allowed to laugh.
I am no longer a journalist, but I remember talking to my buddy Mack the Hack about competition. At the time, we were working for different news agencies in Inuvik. I didn’t believe then and I still don’t believe that we were competing. We did totally different things. We had different audiences. Our goals were different. We weren’t Pepsi and Coke; we were Pepsi and Honey Nut Cheerios: sure, there were some similarities, but you didn’t have to choose between us.
Honestly, I’m trying to imagine what sort of insane mind would come up with the idea that YKOnline is competition for our local newspaper. Seriously. Let’s put this in perspective. We’ve got a newspaper. It’s supposed to be publishing well-researched, accurate, timely, and relevant news and opinion pieces. A young guy starts posting about the things he sees around town. He’s the modern equivalent of a pamphleteer: he’s writing things people want to read. Over time, he builds an audience. He does a great job and shows that there is a real demand for this sort of content in Yellowknife. He updates his content around the clock, corrects errors in real time and publishes feedback. He never pretends to be a journalist. He does little to no news reporting. He does no investigative journalism.
Yeah, he sounds like a real threat.
Clearly, someone at the paper came up with this idea. Whoever it was doesn’t have a very high opinion of his or her own product. Community blogs and community newspapers have very little in common. A newspaper’s focus is on the public interest and on presenting information that is significant, interesting, or new — wait a minute. We may have our answer.
Coming up tomorrow: I’ve interviewed Kyle, the editor of YKOnline, about the future of news in Yellowknife.
Hi, folks – just a clarification…
All references to NNSL/Yellowknifer in the post above should more accurately be replaced with my name – Daron Letts.
Unless I am mistaken – this blog discussion relates to a call I made to a local blogger and a subsequent call to Kyle Thomas of Yk Online and Kyle With Blog – so the caricatured perspective being discussed is my own – not my employer’s.
I made the calls in an effort to inform folks of the Best NWT Blog awards – and to draw attention to the creative networking exercised by the local blogging community in the lead up to the holidays – when people have free time to browse online for entertainment and edification.
At the end of the business day I’ll explain the distinction I personally draw between indy zines and blogs and commercial vehicles such as magazines and ad-based websites – such as that which distinguishes the Do It Up! zine from Up Here Magazine, for example.
I’ll also contribute my account of my own role in this discussion and its genesis – sans ad hominem. I’m tickled to be implicated in a blog discussion and I relish the experience!
I’m a big fan of Snowcovered Hills and Book Mine Set and am also a new fan of Yk Online, Gay White North and other blogs I’ve more recently discovered.
In the meantime – bloggers might enjoy looking up writings by one of my favourite media critics – an early zine writer named Karl Kraus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kraus
Keep up the cool work!
- Daron Letts
(867) 766-8223
Arts Editor, NNSL
PS
As I said to Kyle following our phone call yesterday, call anytime. I’m eager to include your voices and activities in my arts section.
The “news”paper is so paranoid about ONE guy (during his spare time) showing up the newspaper’s what, 30 staffers? and doing the web thing so much better than they do and grabbing advertisers away from the paper’s website… not surprising that this only come us after YKOnline started to get GNWT advertising revenue… (note the GNWT Summer Student ads on YkOnline)
I blogged about this too. http://thegaywhitenorth.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-phone-rings.html
So did Kyle. He got quite a few comments. Even the reporter in question responded.
http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/clarification-of-the-issue/
Kyle also posted this today:
http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/where-we-are-at/
I certainly hope that “traditional media” works with “new media” for the greater good. I guess time will tell.
Daron, you’ve got guts and my respect. Give me a call in the new year. I’ll buy you a coffee. If we time it right, maybe Kyle can make the coffee and then join us.
I’m up for that, Megan. Thanks Darron.
and apparently I can’t spell your name right.
Daron’s had my respect for some time… he’ just upped it a notch…
[...] blog, KyleWiTh, including on his regular podcast. I reacted to Jason’s story here at Reflections in the Snow-Covered Hills. There was also a lot of talk on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve decided to interview [...]
Megan “..It’s supposed to be publishing well-researched, accurate, timely, and relevant news …” are you sure we’re talking about the same newspaper? The one that never mentions any of its compeditors,very rarely publishes phone numbers or URLs because and I quote their mangement here “They should buy an ad if they want that kind of publicity”? Thes is the same paper who’s last ivestigative journalism story was what… three years ago about how much money the NWT MLAs spent on cheap give-aways to their consituants? The paper who’s business editor raises the art of re-writing press releases to a new level?
Hi folks!
Here is a timeline. Please, Kyle and Jason, feel free to correct me if I misrepresent the sequence of events or the facts.
On Monday afternoon I became aware that the deadline for the Best NWT Blogs was Tuesday and not Christmas Eve as it was last year.
(Please see here re: last year’s coverage —- contrary to Jason’s post, I was familiar with the NWT Blog Awards)
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2008-12/dec24_08xma-arts.html
I was preparing Wednesday’s Yellowknifer arts section and felt I should acknowledge the efforts and activities of the blog community, though I clearly missed the chance to give readers a heads-up before polls close. (If I and my colleagues were not so busy I would have asked the online people to post a link ASAP). My mistake. I regret it. It’s a busy time of year and stuff slips, you know?
I consulted the Best NWT Blogs website and found a prominently displayed contact number. I called it, believing I would reach Megan – whose blog I follow loyally every week.
http://www.snowcoveredhills.com/
Rather, Jason answered. He informed me that he is responsible for a blog called the Gay White North – but insisted that better folk to speak with would be the main organizers – Megan, who I recall him saying was in Los Angeles… or Los Vegas… or Los Alamos or some other place south of 60… or Kyle – who is responsible for a blog I’d heard of but never encountered before called Yk Online – which I mistook at the time for the online version of Yk Trader – or some variation thereof – because of my blog ignorance.
Rather than hang up and call Kyle about his site, I asked Jason about his indy blog because I was interested and felt my readers would be, too. I won’t tell you what he said about it, except that it sounded really cool. And it is! Check it out.
http://thegaywhitenorth.blogspot.com/
I’ve always been keen to write about LBGT issues…
http://www.brokenpencil.com/reviews/reviews.php?reviewid=2251
http://www.rabble.ca/news/hate-crimes-put-vote
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/canadian_news/2003/09/27/antihate_l.html
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/advocacy/elsie_wayne.htm
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2009-03/mar11_09rev-arts.html
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=03/09/24/1860097
…so naturally I was interested to dedicate a page of the arts section to a review of the site so people could visit it and the other NWT blogs during their free time over the holidays.
It seemed that Jason felt comfortable with me reviewing his blog in the paper after I asked him for permission. I told him if I didn’t enjoy the site I wouldn’t review it.
Later in the afternoon I called Kyle to ask about the awards from his perspective as an organizer – because Jason had chosen not to go on record. Kyle told me about the Best NWT Blogs and I quoted him in a short article – to inform people about the blogging community’s energy and activities – and to encourage readers to link on the website. I ended the interview, as I always do, by asking something like:
“Is there anything that wasn’t mentioned that should be said?”
or
“Is there anything else you wanted to add?”
Or something like that – which is how I end my interviews.
Kyle said “no.”
And then I invited Kyle to call me in the new year to do something on his blog and he seemed keen.
After listening to folks play guitar at the drop-in shelter in the late afternoon I finished this article:
http://www.nnsl.com/arts/stories/dec22_09fid-arts.html
And then I ran out of time before deadline to properly read and review Gay White North – so I decided I would run a review of it in the new year, instead. I hope Jason is still open to letting me do that.
And the next morning someone showed me this:
http://www.snowcoveredhills.com/?p=4266
and then this:
http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/clarification-of-the-issue/
…and then the Twitters (which I don’t have access to because I don’t Tweet)
…etc. etc.
All I wanted was to inform readers before the holidays that the blog community is active and doing fun stuff – what Jason calls a “fluff” piece.
Then, I learned about Gay White North and expressed interest in focusing on it on a whim – and eschewed encouragement to review Yk Online because it had advertising and was, I thought, akin to Yk Trader and Coffee News. It’s not quite like that I subsequently discovered.
But, I was not intending to set out to prepare a blog review that afternoon at all, anyway – I just wanted to review Gay White North because it sounded cool and unique and I thought I could make time to complete it. I ran out of time.
I’ll be happy to review, interview or acknowledge anyone doing anything artistic or entertaining in 2010. Just drop me a note and we’ll do that.
Hope you enjoy Wednesday’s Yker!
Hey Daron, I am flattered that you want to review the blog I host. Seeing that the blog is not an established media company (all I do is express opinions and things) nor is it in competition with ad revenue, I think your employer will have no problem with it. And if they do…oh, well. So be it. My feelings won’t be hurt.
Cool.