Blogging, writing, and making a living

Caught an older post on Techcrunch this evening about pay cuts at b5Media. Basically, the company says it is adjusting its pay scale to “align” its incentives with what the blogs were actually making.

One of the statements made by Jeremy Wright is “pay is only a small part of being a part of any network like b5media.”

Now, I enjoyed many of the assignments I received as a freelancer, and also enjoyed most of the work I did when I was a full-time writer and/or editor, but pay was never just “a small part” of being associated with any publication. I still talk to some of my editors and colleagues, and really enjoyed that aspect of the job — but I can talk to my friends from other publications without, you know, having to produce any articles. When I sit down to write for publications, pay is still at the forefront of my mind as long as those publications are for-profit. (With the caveat that I now write the occasional material as part of my day job that will be published, but I’m still being paid for that in the end.)

Having worked as a paid writer for nearly a decade, that phrase simultaneously sends chills down my spine — but also jibes with what I’ve been seeing a lot of recently. Some of what I’ve observed (not all of which specifically linked to this article):

• Many bloggers are filling spaces formerly occupied by journalists and paid staffers.
• Fewer and fewer paid staff positions are available to go around.
• More and more professionals (at least in the IT field) are doing double duty, blogging about the industry that they work in on the side.
• The concept of a “living wage” for writing is being thrown out the window.
• Writing is, in and of itself, not being respected as a primary skill.
• Building community is becoming a primary responsibility of bloggers — rather than the publication.
• Many “publications” are little more than hosting platforms — throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks.
• More content is being created, but the quality — or at least the depth — is not as good.

I’m too tired to take the time to connect all the dots right now, but the trend is that full-time writers (at least in the IT industry, which is the only one I really work in at the moment…) are going to have a hard go of it over the next few years, because all the emphasis is on the end goals (traffic, ads, content 24x7x365, popularity rather than high standards) and there’s very little emphasis at all on doing original reporting.

In some ways, this market is better than the one I worked in around 2002 and 2003. If I were freelancing full-time right now, I’d have opportunities to make upwards of $5K a month on blogs alone. (Not, however, with b5media…) But the $1K per article opportunities have pretty much dried up, as far as I can tell.

But, again, what troubles me is that all of these opportunities seem of the part-time variety. Not a problem for me now, since I’m no longer a full-time journalist or writer, but I’m not so far removed from those days that I find this employment environment comforting.

And, perhaps even more concerning, I see the ability to write and produce good solid material taking a sideline to SEO and the ability to write a post that generates controversy and traffic. The ability to write, and to do it well, is not being nurtured or appreciated.