When Angelina first started sporting the baby bump that launched a thousand ships, I saw pictures – the day of. When Nick Lachey was partying with Ms. Kentucky USA, I saw pictures – the day of. And when Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong made their split official, I knew about, read about it and cried about it – the day of. All this thanks to the timely world of celeb-obsessed blogs.
When media experts rail that blogs will spell the demise of the print media, their predictions are given more attention than they deserve. But they may be on to something when it comes to gossip magazines. Because, like me, many who need their daily fix of Brangelina and TomKat find blogs (Pop Sugar, Pink Is the New Blog, D Listed) more entertaining and relevant than their papyrus counterparts (InTouch, US Weekly, People). And our reasons are many.
- Blogs are more timely. With daily updates, troves of content and endless competition, blogs can tell me about L Lo losing pages from her dairy the day it happens.
- Blogs are anonymous. No ridicule at the newsstand. No hiding your US Weekly inside of The Economist. No telling your friends that your kid sister left Star in the bathroom when she came to visit. All that is needed to achieve blog anonymity is an open window of NYTimes.com and a quick mouse finger.
- Blogs are free. Because spending $20 on four magazines with all the same stories is probably not the best idea.
- Blogs are versatile. Not only did I see uncensored pictures of Tara Reid's infamous nipple slip last year, I saw video. And yeah, I watched it more than once.
- Blogs are more entertaining. For some bizarre reason gossip magazines still grasp to some standards of journalism. Blogs recognize the absurdity of the material and treat it accordingly. They make fun of the celebrities. They speculate. They make groundless assertions.
At the end of the day I remain unconvinced that blogs will one day destroy print media. But in the world of baby bumps, nipple slips and that crazy Britney, I believe it can be done.
Zack Barangan @ Wed, 02/08/2006 - 2:06am
I think one of the most appealing characteristics of most blogs is the authors' ability to not take everything so seriously. Deadspin just recently posted pictures of Ben Roethlisberger getting drunk with a few fans, that's something you would never see in any "serious" news publication.
Also, I love the writing style that most blog authors employ. It's to the point, it's funny, and it's down to earth. I think it's easier to connect to that style, rather than the sterile, formal language most journalism pulications use) This is probably there are so many Average Joes with blogs. They think "Hey I can do this too!" and they do. It's an equal opportunity technology.