More about the demise of Blog@Newsarama
Heidi at The Beat has some more details concerning the news that the people behind the popular blog section of Newsarama are leaving at the end of this month.
JK Parkin explains:
Anyway, everything came to a head in September, when I decided to step down and the rest of the blog said they were going with me. The headaches, problems and lack of response from Imaginova just weren’t worth it anymore. But Matt (Brady) talked us into staying, promising some changes in how things worked, how we interacted with Imaginova and our first pay raise since we started with the blog back in 2006. He offered a pretty decent pay system that turned this from a side hobby we were all probably spending too much time on into a legitimate freelance opportunity.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he came back in November and said those changes he’d promised were effectively null and void. So we decided to leave, effective Nov. 30.
JK Parkin states that he decided to leave Newsarama and the rest of the team, Kevin Melrose, Tim O’Shea, Carla Hoffman, Melissa Krause, Jeff Trexler, Matt Maxwell, and Jennifer de Guzman, decided to go with him. Or maybe not. In the same post over at The Beat, Matt Maxwell left a comment stating that he hasn’t yet decided if he is leaving Newsarama or not. Maybe there’s others who having decided to leave quite yet.
It doesn’t make much sense for any of them to remain blogging over at Newsarama. As I pointed out in an earlier post, traffic to Newsarama seems to have dropped off dramaticly since Imaginova relaunched the site. If making money is their goal, they could still do that on their own site by placing ads for the same entities that were buying ad space on Blog@Newsarama.
Newsarama wins an award for journalism?
Word out of the San Diego Comic-Con (the cool kids call it SDCC) is that the comic book website Newsarama won an Eisner award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism. I normally don’t put much stock into awards, but seriously, Newsarama, an award for journalism?
It seems to me that whoever decided Newsarama should win an award for journalism either does not know the meaning of the word journalism or didn’t get wind of the recent Heroes Con panel entitled, “Covering Comics: Criticism, Reportage, and Gossip“. Newsarama’s co-founder and current editor Matt Brady attended the panel and made some startling comments.
Among the many things Brady said was that there had been times where he had to think about the long term picture before breaking a story. He admitted that he sometimes worried about repercussions from the publishers if he (Newsarama) was the first to break certain stories. He said that sometimes he would ask himself if it was more prudent to “hang back” and allow certain stories to break elsewhere — like a blog or a rumor column — and comment on the story then.
I would think that if you are going to hang back and allow someone else break a story so that you don’t get flack from the Marvel or DC, you are not a comic book journalist. You are certainly not an award winning comic book journalist.
Comics journalism: Carrots, sticks, threats, and spankings
If you are a fan of reading any of the various comic book news sites or blogs, you need to check out the podcast from one of the panels held at the recent Heroes Con in North Carolina. The panel was entitled, “Covering Comics: Criticism, Reportage, and Gossip“. It was moderated by Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter. The panel was comprised of Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading), Matt Brady (Newsarama), Heidi MacDonald (The Beat), Tim Hodler (Comics Comics), and Carlton Hargro, editor of the local alt-weekly Creative Loafing.
After listening to the entire panel, I was the most impressed with Carlton Hargo and Johanna Draper Carlson.
By far the most interesting segment was when Matt Brady spoke about repercussions from comic publishers. It’s at around the 20:00 mark if you want to jump ahead. He pointed to two stories that he believed put Newsarama on the map. He mentioned the Siegel/Superman stuff and the DC Comics/Wildstorm deal. He stated there would be multiple hoops to jump through and there would be “repercussions” if those topics were covered today.
He then talked about “carrots and sticks” and “threats and spankings”. He went on to say that there have been many times where he has had to think about the long term picture before breaking a story. He admitted that he sometimes worries about repercussions from the publishers if he (Newsarama) is the first to break certain stories. He said that sometimes he has had to ask himself if it was more prudent to “hang back” and allow certain stories to break elsewhere — like a blog or a rumor column — and comment on the story then.
Wow.
I felt uncomfortable listening to it on my iPod. I cannot imagine sitting in the room and hearing it in person.
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