It seems that over the last few days some kind of controversy has erupted in the Buffalo Prefecture of Blogistan. Basically, several local bloggers who often write about local issues of politics, economic development, and the like have been making weekly appearances on a local radio news program, until they were abruptly informed that they will no longer be invited on the show. No problem there, except for the fact that the guy who made this decision apparently told the bloggers one story and The Buffalo News another.
Basically it apparently all boils down to the fact that the bloggers in question tend to be critical of the other hosts on that particular radio station (who are, in my opinion, both idiots and completely uninteresting listens on the radio, which is why I stick with classical WNED FM and sportstalk WGR 550, but that's neither here nor there), the station doesn't want to give airtime to people who continually criticize their other talent, and then they were dumb enough to fib about it in print. Of course, this particular fib probably won't hurt them much, since far fewer people are going to read about this in the blogs than will in the paper. It's still pretty dumb -- nobody's going to really think twice about a radio station not allowing airtime to people who are harshly critical of their main talent (such as it is). So what this guy thought he was gaining by putting multiple stories out there is beyond me.
As far as all that goes, I would note that it sometimes seems as though in Buffalo the only blogs that attract any kind of attention at all are the ones stabled at WNYMedia.net. Now, a big part of that is obviously the size of their operation, coupled with the fact that many of those blogs make Buffalo-centric topics the main staple of their content (whereas this blog, for example, might as well be based in Walla Walla for all the Buffalo-blogging I do these days). But the fact is that the Buffalo Prefecture of Blogistan extends, in fact, beyond the borders of WNYMedia.net, a fact which I think is sometimes forgotten these days.
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6 comments:
I never think of WNY MEDIA as the only Buffalo Bloggers, in fact I have a list of Buffalo Bloggers in my blogkines that I read much more regulary then some of my own "family" AND I ALWAYS make sure to include all the Buffalo Bloggers whenever I am planning some kind of a stint etc, never hass it been an exclusive WNY MEDIA thing, ever.
That's not what I was getting at, and I'm sorry I was unclear. Linkage from WNYMedia blogs seems to mostly direct to other WNYMedia blogs much of the time; the Buffalo News never seems to go any farther than the WNYMedia stable when looking for fodder for their blog column; that kind of thing.
Put it this way: I get the feeling (and it's mostly that, a feeling) that if I'd been posting the exact same content that I've posted in this space over the last year on a WNYMedia blog, this blog would have had a lot more attention from Buffalo. As it is, less than half of my traffic originates from WNY (once I factor out goofy stuff like search engine hits and the like).
And I concede in the main post that this is also in large part due to my content in the first place. Since my traffic has remained pretty much on a static plateau for over a year now, I suspect that my traffic is what it is.
(It still bugs me that when Spree Magazine did that big article about local blogs, mine didn't even make the sidebar, even though this is one of the oldest Buffalo-based blogs in existence. That has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but hey, as long as I'm bitching!)
Anyway, let me reiterate that my ruminations here are in no way instigated by anything YOU did or didn't do, Jen!
I get the same feeling sometimes about the WNYMedia.net blogs and other blogs, Jaquandor, but I wonder if I'm not being too sensitive. Maybe I'm not the only one.
I enjoy quite a few of the WNYMedia blogs, but I feel like yelling at times that "we're here, too." For those not too informed on Buffalo blogs, it is a convenient and informative one-stop site.
You guys could always join the network and get some of our media love. :-)
It boils down to Marc's relationships with local media outlets being what they are and the efforts of Alan and I to build friendships with establishment media types as well as the activist nature of our writers.
We link to all Buffalo blogs but, since our content is so heavy on the news and politics, the establishment guys tend to come to us for quotes and whatnot.
In the end, I will admit that we could do a better job of publicizing the other denizens of Buffalo Blogistan. However, I think we do a much better job than the other MAJOR blog in town at advertising the contributions of external writers. Hell, they don't even link to other blogs.
I have always made sure we were one big family of BUFFALO BLOGS :) And lucky me, my article in Spree was before I moved over to WNYMEDIA. (I think it was the sex and the city single girl angle that none of you's were qualified for ;)And actually, the few times I had people contact me from the news, is from my own relationships as well, before blogging.
As for feeling *left out* all I can say is that the GIST of WNYMEDIA to me, like Geek said, is the News and Politics section, which I touch on here and there, but I am All Things and I am left out of this *mix* as well. In fact, while I link to all the WNY MEDIA sites on my blog, I am not linked on many of the others...linkage creates traffic too, and I think the big newsy blogs are the ones most people link to!!!
And as an aside: I can't tell you how many times I have sent over a piece of information to another MAJOR Buffalo Blog and not see one single mention on the site. This irks me so, I am a spread the word kind of blogger...
The end.
Oh and you can all be sure that anytime we have had a bloggercon, it involved BUFFALO as a whole. Never once has there been a WNYMEDIA con (although one of the rooms in my apartment on New Years Day turned out to be that way) then again, bloggers, I mean friends, were scattered all over!
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