Eat The Press

Building a Better Blogosphere

Jason Linkins |  Posted Friday April 13, 2007 at 04:16 PM

"Of course I am regretful
Why else would I agree
To sit on the Today show
And have Matt Lauer talk to me?

Why else would I be willing
To go on Sharpton's show?
I've done so many interviews
I kind of feel like a ho."

That's just an excerpt from "Fragments from 'Imus! The Musical'" by Ben Greenman. Greenman, an editor at The New Yorker, has been offering his hilarious musical fragments to an appreciative audience for some time now. Over at McSweeney's, he's previously regaled us with "Fragments from 'Steroids! The Musical'" and "Fragments from 'If I Did It! The Musical.'" Now he's bringing his talents to Gawker, where his "Fragments" will become a regular feature, where it will alternate with the equally worth-putting-on-your-must-list Gawker Underminer from Mike Albo (based on his book of the same name with Virginia Heffernan) — who's been effortlessly extending his brand, offering brief, yet hilariously unsettling insights into that "supposed best friend who casually destroys your life."

Nearly everyone who's trying to make a living online, from the for-profit blog scene to the mainstream titans, are striving to hit their marks where Web 2.0 is concerned. One thing hasn't changed, though: content is still king. But it's evolving. Last December, Mark Graham, better known as Uncle Grambo to the folks that flock to his blog Whatevs, offered something of a prescient caution to sites like Gawker and Radar:

"The system of which your Uncle Grambo speaks is the reprehensible dictate that (I believe) Nick Denton originally ordered that demanded the bloggers in his stable file X number of posts per day ... or else...Nowadays, the immensely talented folks at places at Radar and Gawker are slaves to the grind who serve the in the stead of the Almighty Page View rather than their readership. Which is not to say that these folks don't do exceptional work; that's the farthest thing from the truth. But...readers suffer by having to wade through three disjointed ruminations rather than one truly kickass post."

Now, nothing has yet managed to slay the beast born from the "30 posts a day" diktat (and we're fans of the Gawker talent over here, clearly). But, more and more, shrewd sites are starting to think like their network teevee forbears. They're thinking "kickass post" and building tentpoles — must-see pieces that bring eyeballs on click one. Call it Event Content &Mdash; posts you can set your watch to that swell the tide and lift the smaller posts.

By bringing on people like Albo and Freeman, plus its investment in video and photo via Richard Blakely and Nikola Tamdazic — Gawker is making a pretty heavy investment, both in dollars and in trust. But the potential benefits are manifold--the collaborators bring diversity, the branded offerings bring the readers, and a different, distinctive tone is set--more independent thinking, less coasting. Sure, it may seem like a gamble, but go ahead and read down to Freeman's coup de grace last line, and tell us that's not the way to play with house money.