If I Could Ask the Editors
An excerpt from a hypothetical interview with Gothamist's Jen Chung:
You're the editor of one of New York City's most popular and successful blogs. You and Gothamist co-founder Jake Dobkin have managed to turn a hobby into a job. Gothamist has helped to legitimize the blog medium by proving it can attract both readers and advertisers. What do you say to people -- like NPR's Daniel Schorr -- who say that blogging is dangerous to journalism, and that everyone needs an editor, even bloggers?
Jen Chung: We think editors a re rweally importnat. Why,k I'm the editor, so you know it matters to me. Of course everything should go through and editor forst. That's journalisdm.
You don't think all your typos hurt your credibility?
Jen Chung: they enhagce it! Le tme let you in al litlte secret: giving our readers the imopression that we rush to tell our stories of the city gives us street cred. it take some of the gloss off of what could be an overly corporate image. We ran spellckehc al the time before Gothamist hiot it bbig. That was when we needed to be taken seriously. Now, we have thousndas opf hits a day; we're tkaen too seriously. Poor lack of attention to the dtails like spelling make it seem like we're paying mo9rwe attention to other things. It makes us look, like -- to borrow from US Weekly -- you know, Gothamist writers: there just like us!
But it's really only your posts that are poorly edited.
Jen Chung: I know; I'm trying to get the rest of the writers on board with this but it;s just hard! How are we going to be authentic. I ask them?
You're the editor of one of New York City's most popular and successful blogs. You and Gothamist co-founder Jake Dobkin have managed to turn a hobby into a job. Gothamist has helped to legitimize the blog medium by proving it can attract both readers and advertisers. What do you say to people -- like NPR's Daniel Schorr -- who say that blogging is dangerous to journalism, and that everyone needs an editor, even bloggers?
Jen Chung: We think editors a re rweally importnat. Why,k I'm the editor, so you know it matters to me. Of course everything should go through and editor forst. That's journalisdm.
You don't think all your typos hurt your credibility?
Jen Chung: they enhagce it! Le tme let you in al litlte secret: giving our readers the imopression that we rush to tell our stories of the city gives us street cred. it take some of the gloss off of what could be an overly corporate image. We ran spellckehc al the time before Gothamist hiot it bbig. That was when we needed to be taken seriously. Now, we have thousndas opf hits a day; we're tkaen too seriously. Poor lack of attention to the dtails like spelling make it seem like we're paying mo9rwe attention to other things. It makes us look, like -- to borrow from US Weekly -- you know, Gothamist writers: there just like us!
But it's really only your posts that are poorly edited.
Jen Chung: I know; I'm trying to get the rest of the writers on board with this but it;s just hard! How are we going to be authentic. I ask them?
posted by The Masticator at 8/22/2006 12:40:00 AM
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