War in the Cheddarsphere: The South-Central Theater

The online community wars here in Madison have really heated up in the past month or so. The latest series of skirmishes began last month when Madison's alt-weekly, Isthmus, mentioned that Capital Newspapers, who publish Madison's dailies, was going to put out a new free weekly called Post. Post also happens to be a section of the group's online presence (madison.com) which features a coterie of blogs exclusive to the site and links to other local bloggers. The print version of Post debuted last week to mixed reviews. Concomitant to this, the online version of Post received a facelift.

A couple weeks ago a group called Madison Interactive had its first meeting. Adam Powell, a Post blogger, led a panel discussion which included, amongst others, Todd Lekan, another denizen of madison.com. The event drew criticism from Kristian Knudsen of Isthmus' online presence, The Daily Page. Here's his comment:

However the event might “work out” to be, the money came from some budget line at Capital Newspapers, and my guess it’s marketing. It’s no coincidence that you are kicking off this group in conjunction — almost to the day — of your brand new publication, and not long after the launch of your revamped site.

I too think that this kind of group and discussion is a great idea. Unfortunately, given that you made no serious effort to include participation from your online competitors in the Madison market, it’s pretty clear that Capital Newspapers sees this as an opportunity to promote their new product and recruit more people to blog for them (and build ad impressions). That makes you a less than credible organizer.

This event isn’t about commerce in online communities, it’s about building commerce for a single online community, one owned by one of the largest newspaper chains in the nation.

And today Jason Joyce made a remark at The Daily Page which indicates that something is happening on this front over at Isthmus. The piece was about Madison blogger Ann Althouse and her latest piece in the New York Times. Joyce concludes:

In her Times piece, Althouse addresses the conversations that occur among those leaving comments on her site, suggesting bloggers "let life on the blog unfold like off-blog life."

That thought is particularly interesting due to some work we're completing this week right here at TDP, but more on that later.

The Daily Page and Post along with Dane101 are the major local blog aggregators for the Madison area. Dane101 has seemed to be able to stay above the fray thus far. (Although The Daily Page did see fit to take a snipe at it recently.) Unlike the other two, it is not tied to a print publication. Listening to Dane101 editor Jesse Russell speak at the Madison Interactive event about advertising at the site, it seems that he has the best of intentions (i.e. – not constantly looking at the bottom line) in creating an online community, if not a genuinely quixotic drive. However, TDP and Post are very much for-profit ventures. All 3 sites link to one another yet there's so much bad blood.

Dane101 is quite explicit in stating its purpose but Post and TDP's Miscellany section aren't. How do they fit into the larger goals of the print publications of which they are a part? What purpose do they serve other than getting folks to see and click on ads? More generally, who should care about blogs and why should anyone read them? Dane101 is part blog aggregator and part indie journalism and it gives its answer to these questions. Post and TDP haven't answered them yet, at least not fully.

I think we've gotten to the point where just throwing up a list of blog posts with some kind of local content is not enough. If you take blogs (or at least certain blogs or blog posts) seriously enough to use them as content for your website, then they should be treated more seriously than they are now. Instead of just lumping them all together divorced from any context, segregate posts by content and allow comments. Perhaps certain bloggers could be followed over time or, if a suitable blogger is found, then all posts relating to a topic of interest could be brought together. Are any rival blogs slugging it out online? Maybe exchanges between blogs could be highlighted. Right now I'll take just about anything over winnowing through a dozen posts with "analysis" of Badger games in order to find something I find interesting.

Only time will tell what these sites will be like as they mature. Hopefully they will all take varied approaches and differentiate themselves from one another in some fashion. I think this would benefit those of us who do try to keep abreast of the blogosphere here in the Madison area but might also draw in folks who have never bothered to see for themselves what all the hubbub is about.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the work that the folks at TDP are doing this week.