Sunday's print column:First thing in the morning on Aug. 18, 2003 — 10 years ago Sunday — I stumbled bleary-eyed but eager to my desk in the attic and, with a few keystrokes, uploaded the following to the Tribune's website:
LIFO-SUCTION
Because of the "last in, first out" feature of weblogs in which new material is stacked on top of the old, this bottom-of-the-last-page entry is actually the first in Breaking Views … On this first day I know this is a great idea, I just can't quite tell if it's a great idea for me or not. We shall see. Or, if you're reading this in the future, we shall have seen. Here goes!
And, ever since, there it has gone. A decade of posting entries, more than 12,000 so far, in the Tribune's first online news commentary journal. Note that back then the Tribune called them "weblogs," a less-than-artful combination of "Web" and "log" that most people were already shortening to "blog." And that we called this one "Breaking Views."
A lawyer for BreakingViews.com, a European financial news site, quickly wrote us a cease-and-desist letter. Our lawyers elected not to fight the demand that we not use their name, though I argued for the publicity value of a high-profile legal spat ("Neither Zorn's spirit nor his views can be broken!"). So it became "Notebook," and then, finally, on my second blogaversary, "Change of Subject," a salute to my late grandfather's signature conversational segue.
But back to that first day.
Leading up to it had been a series of meetings with various editors, some of whom had to be convinced that this emerging format had a place at a serious newspaper. Weren't blogs the splenetic, inaccurate and numbingly tedious online diaries posted by self-involved geeks sitting in their parents' basements?
Yes, but they were also forums for some of the fastest, liveliest, most useful online journalism under the stewardship of cutting-edge commentators. You could no more generalize about blogs than you could, say, magazines.
Assorted other newspapers were already experimenting with blogs — the Charlotte Observer had been first in 1998, and The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Christian Science Monitor were among those in the game. It was time, I argued, for the Tribune to lead the way in Chicago. I was already maintaining my own independent website devoted to commentary and debate, so why not put me on point?
In my proposal memo to the editors I wrote, "I want in on what I see as an exciting, new blended medium that combines the power of print with the immediacy and vitality of radio/TV and the vast comprehensiveness of the Internet."
OK, they said. Knock yourself out. Just don't let it interfere with your real job.
I posted 10 items on that first day, including a thumbnail review of an Earl Scruggs concert I'd attended, a refutation of an online rumor about two-way mirrors, an argument for pending legislation against junk faxes, a list of the marathon times of the new chief of the Cook County Jail and a rebuke to my brothers and sisters in the media who mispronounced the name of retiring Chicago police Superintendent Terry Hillard.
It's HILL-ard, ya goofs, not HILLY-erd.
Several colleagues thought I was nuts. The audience was small — a fraction of a percent of the daily readership of the newspaper — and the rewards intangible, at best.
I kept at it because it was fun, because it was a great place to bat around column ideas with dedicated readers and to beat the traditional news cycle with quips, notions, tirades, trivia and tips. By and by, other Tribune beat writers, critics and columnists started blogs. Many of our print and broadcast competitors added them, too, joining an ever-increasing number of local independent news-based blogs such as Gapers Block and Chicagoist.
What better way to interact, to share observations and information quickly with a select audience?
Well, how about social media?
Blogging predates Facebook and Twitter, neither of which was available to the public until 2006 and both of which knocked blogging right off that cutting edge. With blogging, you hope to draw readers to your content. With social media you push your content at readers.
The advent of smartphones — the first iPhone was released in mid-2007 — only increased the social media advantage. The Corvette became a Chevette, to put it in automotive terms
But, like Chevettes, blogs remained useful. In fact, mid-2007 marked something of a high point for Change of Subject.
The big local story that summer was the firing of NBC-5 reporter Amy Jacobson. If you remember, she had been covering the still-unsolved disappearance of Plainfield resident Lisa Stebic and accepted an invitation to attend a pool party hosted by Stebic's husband, Craig, whom many believed was involved in the disappearance.
Jacobson attended, in a bathing suit, naturally, and brought along her children due to vagaries of personal scheduling. A competing station videotaped her at the event and her bosses sacked her for crossing an ethical line.
I stuck up for her and what I saw as plain old enterprising reporting, and the comment traffic on a series of related posts ran into the thousands — my furious detractors debating with me and my stout supporters — before I had to shut them down to save my sanity.
It's that sort of passion and intelligence of my community of regular commenters that keeps me posting away.
Their online conversations with each other and with me are enlightening, infuriating, inspiring, occasionally depressing and, just as I had hoped, helpful in my real job, which is writing for print. In fact, last week they submitted a long series of questions about Change of Subject, my answers to which — now posted online, of course — became the basis for this column.
Therefore later, as competitors have abandoned their blogs for the easy lure of Twitter and Facebook and the bosses have turned to the siren song of video (thanks, YouTube, 2005) as the key to making personal connections with our audience, I remain blog loyal and even more bleary-eyed than ever.
The chronological, newest-stuff-first way of presenting topic-specific information and commentary beats social media hands down for many purposes.
As if to underscore this point, the Tribune announced Thursday that it's formed a partnership with veteran local media columnist Robert Feder in which the Chicago Tribune Media Group will market and license Feder's editorially independent blog
Looking ahead 10 years, I expect to see many more such partnerships and evolutions, and I hope I'm still in on the action.
Looking back 10 years, I can now say that I'm sure embarking on this adventure was a great idea for me.
Here goes again!
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ONLINE EXTRAS:
In the paper the next day, August 19, 2003, I published this print column :
Someday is now for Tribune's new Web log
August 19, 2003
Many questions surround the launch of Breaking Views, a feature that started this week on the Chicago Tribune's Web site.
What
exactly will readers find there? How often will new material be posted?
Will it prove popular enough to be a viable addition to our multimedia
empire? Am I out of my mind to add this project to my other
responsibilities?
Neither
my editors nor I are exactly sure of the answers. The working
definition, which appears at the top of
chicagotribune.com/breakingviews, is "a frequently updated journal
containing observations, reports, tips, referrals, tirades and whatever
else happens to be in my notebook."
This
will translate into generally short nuggets of opinion and
information--columnettes--that often link to other articles and sites of
interest on the Internet. The orientation will be local but not
exclusively so, and the approach will be subjective, candid and
personal.
I expect
to add entries to the top of the site every weekday, usually in the
morning and sometimes throughout the day when I'm not busy with this
column, which will continue in this space three times a week as always.
I'll comment on what's caught my attention in the papers, on radio and
TV, in my mailbox and on the streets, and I'll explore questions that
come up.
My goal
is to make Breaking Views useful, provocative and amusing, sometimes all
at once. And my hope is that readers will bookmark the site and peek in
regularly enough to persuade the decision-makers in the fancy offices
that I'm not out of my mind in leading the Tribune into this emerging
hybrid media form.
The idea
is neither new nor unusual. Constantly updated Web sites filled with
links and often idiosyncratic commentary have been around for more than a
decade, and some estimates put their number at nearly 3 million thanks
to the explosion in high-speed Internet access and the availability of
free software and hosting services that make them easy to create and
keep up.
Look for
those numbers to skyrocket after America Online launches AOL Journals
this month and invites its huge subscriber base to create their own Web
logs--blogs for short.
When
they are done well, Web logs combine the power of print, the immediacy
and vitality of broadcast, and the comprehensiveness of the Internet to
create a format that "cannot be replicated on any other medium," in the
words of journalist Andrew Sullivan, whose Daily Dish is one of the most
visited such sites.
"It's
somewhere in between writing a column and talk radio," Sullivan
explained in an essay on the phenomenon. "It's genuinely new. And it
harnesses the Web's real genius."
Mainstream newspapers and magazines have been slow to incorporate staff-written blogs on
their Web sites, in part, I suspect, because the format has typically
been looser, more rambunctious and more self-indulgent than our
traditions permit.
But that hesitation is starting to give way as the power and potential of the format becomes apparent. You now findblogs at
the Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Sacramento Bee, Spokane
Spokesman-Review, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Phoenix, Albuquerque
Journal and many other established media sites.
The American Press Institute calls them j-blogs--the
"j" stands for journalists--and traces them back to the Charlotte
Observer's real-time Web coverage of Hurricane Bonnie five years ago
this month.
I don't
know if I'm the one who can make this idea work at the Tribune. But I'll
experiment with features and use the reach of my position, the
resources of the newspaper and the energy of our readers to try to make
Breaking Views worth your while.
As the
self-appointed digital pioneer at the Tribune (first columnist to invite
e-mail, 1993; first columnist with own Web site, 1997), I've
volunteered for this admittedly questionable challenge because I have no
question about one thing: Every publication and most opinion
journalists will be blogging within 15 years, probably sooner.
Writers
and readers will come to expect the immediacy and intimacy of the
format, while publishers will find in it a new way to build and maintain
valuable relationships with the public.
I may have to eat these words, so mark them well.
In fact, to be on the safe side, bookmark them well.
Here are the other entries from that ambitious first day:
Monday, August 18, 2003
PITHY DIET ADVICE… from WLS-AM host Jay Marvin, offered on a recent program: "Get your head out of the pail!"
JUST IN TIME FOR THE RE-OPENING OF SOLDIER'S FIELD AND THE EXPANSION
OF O'HARA AIRPORT: Terry Hillard (HILL-urd) has retired as Chicago
Police Superintendent. Whatever else one might say about this
development, it certainly moves off the news radar screen another
opportunity for hosts and commentators to sound dumb by calling him
"Terry Hilliard (HILLY-urd)." Many did, right up until the end.
HILL-urd is not an uncommon name – roughly 25 in the Chicago White
Pages, about half the number of HILLY-urds – so what explained this
persistent confusion?
AM I OUT OF MY J-BLOGGIN' MIND? Maybe. Yet I am not alone. The
American Press Institute's catalog of weblogs ("webalog?"
"blogiography?") maintained by working journalists contains a link to the API's own blog on the topic .
Meanwhile, Editor and Publisher columnist Steve Outing has the goods when he maintains that "Blogs Have a Place on News Web Sites." .
I will try to link to other self-justifying articles here. Meanwhile, a
man with plenty of J on his resume, author and former Chicagoan John
Scalzi announced on his personal blog that he will be helping AOL shepherd in its new blogging tool. I agree with John's take, which is, roughly, the more the merrier.
EARL AT OLD TOWN: I'm just hoping that, when I'm Earl Scruggs' age
(79), my fingers will still be able to hold the oatmeal spoon. His
fingers remain nimble enough to pick through rapid -– indeed in some
places too rapid – versions of classic bluegrass numbers including
several of his that actually became pop hits ("Foggy Mountain
Breakdown," "The Ballad of Jed Clampett.")
He's living history, which is part of the reason I bought tickets to
see him Sunday night at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Long after
he's gone, his name will remain attached to the common picking style
that he pioneered and popularized, putting him in the same league as Dr.
Henry Heimlich, Louis Pasteur and others whose names are part of the
everyday lexicon.
There are far better banjo pickers and far more interesting bluegrass
ensembles, but there's only one Earl Scruggs. I'm glad I'm not a music
critic anymore (I was in college and in my first year at the Tribune)
because such artists are nearly impossible to review in the usual sense.
Few of us were there to hear the latest, greatest bluegrass, but merely
to see and hear a legend.
That said, it was disappointing that he didn't say even one word to
the audience all night (I saw the second of two shows). I'm not asking
for dazzling showmanship, but even the surly Bob Dylan mumbles the
occasional "thank you."
Another part of the reason I bought tickets to Sunday's show was to
see the warmup act, the Steve Rosen Trio. Steve is a member of the Songs of Good Cheer ensemble
that Mary Schmich and I front every December at the Old Town School.
He's an amazing talent with a delightful repertoire.
Another member of the four-person trio (don't ask) was Chris Walz,
who, I'm happy to announce here, will be joining the ensemble for our
shows this December 13 and 14.
I realize you're probably not yet making Christmas-season plans, but we are.
Watch this space (and the column space that Mary, Dawn Trice and I share) for ticket info.
EXCELLENCE IN WEBLOGGING
I had what I thought was an original,
whimsical notion last week to name this blog "Fair and Balanced" in an
attempt to get sued by Fox, garner attention and catapult myself to
instant fame and riches. It seems to have worked for humorist Al
Franken, whose book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and
Balanced Look at the Right" is riding high atamazon.com even though it won't be published until next month. It seems I was not alone. This Web site has collected a very long list of sites that have recently "gone F&B." (Thanks to Dan Kennedy's Media Log for the link).
The creative variety in blog names reminds me of the team names in
the old Shoot-the-Bull three-on-three basketball tournament in Grant
Park. In the early '90s I appointed myself the Boswell of Shoot-the-Bull
team names and bestowed the best-name award each year:
1991 – Your Mother Never Loved You.
1992 – Al Campanis and the Grambling Swim Team.
1993 – Game Canceled.
1994 – Where Three on Three Gather, I Am There.
1995 – The Team Formerly Known As Prince.
I liked the following blog names from the "gone F&B" list:
Snarkattack!
Bloggity Blog Blog Blog
Busy, Busy, Busy
The Story So Far
Peevish
Apropos of Nothing
Disgruntella
Free Whine
Dirty Fez
Opinions You Should Have
Nixon Biscuit
Let The Record Show Sometimes You Just Have To Say Something.
If you know a site on the Web that collects and honors creative blog names, I'd like to hear about it. And if you'd like to know other names I considered and rejected for this blog as well as other information about it, visit Breaking Views FAQ.
RED HERRING ALERT: This front page story in today's Trib tells
how a new Federal Communications Commission rule set to take effect
next Monday will require business to secure written permission before
faxing anything that falls under the rubric of "advertisement"
Numerous business groups are bleating that the new rules ---similar
in their purpose to the do-not-call rules -- will subject them to heavy
fines when faxing notices of meetings that charge fees, price quotes,
requests for association dues and other routine bits of
business-to-business mail.
Oh, please.
The truth is that if business had paid attention to the existing laws on junk faxes,
none of these tighter rules would be necessary. Specifically,
dishonorable businesses have taken advantage of the loophole that has
allowed them to send unsolicited faxes to those with whom they
purportedly have a "prior business relationship.
The new law expressly covers "any material advertising the commercial
availability or quality of any property, goods, or services which is
transmitted to any person without that person's prior express invitation
or permission."
And the principle is that it's my fax machine, my paper, my
exceedingly costly ink-jet cartridge and my time. No business has a
right to any of it, and when they abuse the opportunity to communicate
in a way most convenient to them, they ought to pay a severe price.
The situation now is bad. I have to keep my personal fax machine
turned off to prevent fax bombing from mortgage companies, travel
agencies, stock peddlers and others who know that I'd have a hard time
proving that we don't have a "prior business relationship."
The new law reverses the burden --– requires the faxer to demonstrate
my willingness to receive his fax -- and if the FCC sticks to its guns,
maybe I'll be able to turn the machine back on again.
There's more support for my view at junkfax.org and, for the other side of the story, thisfrom the panic peddlers at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The entire 164-page rule is available in this pdf file.
PUNDIT PATROL:
Dawn Turner Trice (Trib) prints letters from readers about three different recent column topics.
A Trib editorial on
the Fox News Channel lawsuit against Al Franken's use of "fair and
balanced" in the title of his new book notes the absurdity of the case
-- "We're considering trademarking the words "are you kidding?" and
"waste of the court's time" so when the judge rules in this case, we may
have some issues of our own" -- and notes the deluge of free publicity
that Fox has (unwittingly?) given Franken. Neil Steinberg(Sun Times) put a similar point in an historical context Sunday.
Steve Neal (Sun
Times) reports that State Sen. Barack Obama "is the clear favorite of
informed voters" in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, according to a
polling firm hired by Obama. Can't vouch for the poll numbers, of
course, but Neal's conclusion, "If the black community rallies behind
Obama, he will be very difficult to stop in next year's primary" is both
quite true and good news.
Laura Washington (Sun Times) is feeling Cubs' pennant fever after having vowed in 1969 that she'd never dare hope again.
Jimmy Greenfield (RedEye)
tells how his attempt to dodge the city-sticker law cost him $225.30--
two tickets and related costs --- and notes that he's confessing " in
the hope that you can turn yourself in to avoid what I've been through.
Not just because I don't want to be the only one who didn't get away
with it.." Too bad he paid his tickets before reading today's Sun Times lead story noting that the success rate for in-person parking ticket appeals exceeds 70 percent.
Phil Rosenthal (Sun
Times) gets off a good line in a review of the latest piece of reality
TV dreck: Jessica "Simpson, 23, is cute as a button, and--fairly or
not--comes across on `Newlyweds' as about as sharp."
Dennis Byrne (Trib)
and I are in total agreement today, a harmonic convergence that I
believe signifies the beginning of end times. With no partisan
fingerpointing whatsoever, Byrne praises the little-heralded passage of
the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. Money passage: "No one--man,
woman or minor in confinement--`deserves' to be raped. Prison rape is no
joke, as it is often treated. Prison rape, and the high chance of
contracting HIV/AIDS from it (and then passing it along to the general
population after receiving parole), is not part of any sentence."
FASTER THAN OPRAH: A recent Sun-Times interview with new Cook County Jail chief Callie Baird mentioned
that Baird was in training for her third Chicago Marathon. But it
didn't give the detail that all runners wanted to know: What were her times?
You could look it up. In fact, I did: In 2001, Baird ran the 26.2
mile course in 4:15:05 . In 2002, 4:14:12. Though the winners finish in a
little over two hours, Baird's times are very good, with an average
pace of under 10 minutes per mile. She handily beat Oprah Winfrey's time
(4:29:20) in Oprah's only marathon, and all three of my marathon times
(I beat Oprah only once).
BLOCK THAT RUMOR! Whenever someone sends you an e-mail warning about, well, virtually anything, check it out at an urban-legend busting site before passing it along.
The other day, I received a warning about the lurking danger of
two-way mirrors that advised everyone to conduct this "simple test" on
mirrors in hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc.: "Place the tip of your
fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between
your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a GENUINE mirror.
However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail,
then BEWARE, FOR IT IS a 2-WAY MIRROR! `No Space, Leave the Place.'"
Nonsense, says snopes.com:
"Though there are two-way mirrors in this world, and it's possible
someone has installed one in a changing room somewhere, this procedure
won't detect it. All this test will do is help to distinguish between a
first-surface and second-surface mirror, both of which are ordinary
one-way view mirrors, just glazed in a different fashion. On a
first-surface mirror, anything you put up against it will touch its
reflection because the reflective part of mirror is laid in right at the
surface. On a second-surface mirror, touching it will result in gap
between object and reflection because a layer of clear glass has been
incorporated over the reflective part of the mirror to better protect
it. First-surface looking glasses are more expensive than second-surface
ones, so you won't encounter as many in your travels as you will those
of the cheaper variety. They're used in fine optical instruments where a
protective layer of glass would interfere with the path of light or
where an extra degree of precision is called for. There may be peeping
Toms out there, but this test isn't going to catch any of them. At its
best, it's useless; at its worst, it's going to get someone arrested for
property damage resulting from tossing a chair through a perfectly
normal mirror."
---------
Questions from readers, links to the answers:
1. What subjects get the most comments from
regular visitors, and what subjects get the most comments from
first-time or occasional visitors?
2. How do you put up with those of us who like to mess with you?
3. What positions, political or otherwise, have you had a change of heart on based on your posts, research and comments from CoS?
4. How do you handle the "undesirables" who post comments? Whether
they be flamers, trolls, or regulars who are super annoying, I would
think having to deal with the public would be quite a challenge. Do you
actively block IP addresses? Does the software automatically filter out
swear words?
5. Do you believe a successful blog relies on feedback and engaging commentary?
6. 2003 was in the relatively earlier days of blogging. What kinds
of reactions did you get from fellow journos? Supportive, critical,
neither, both?
7. Was the blog your idea or was the
honor awarded to you? Has the blog met your expectations? The Tribune's?
Surprises? Disappointments? Up for another ten? How much time do you
devote this during the week?
8. What you would pick as the Top 10 (or more) blog items of the first 10 years. Do you know of any face-to-face
meetings/friendships/dates/trysts/marriages/divorces/births/deaths that
can be directly attributed to Change of Subject? Thank God you don't have to use Facebook comments - how did you pull that off? Why do you think it is that others at the paper aren't
blogging as well? Do you think you'll still be doing this 10 years from
now? Do you think any of your posts have had an influence on the issue about which you were writing?
9. Do you know the average number of unique blog visitors
that you get in a day? I've noticed that Steinberg has a running meter
visible on his new blog, indicating the total number of views. Do you
have something like this behind the scenes? Do you care to comment about
how the traffic on the site has varied over the ten years?
10. Do you see the blog changing in the coming
months/years/decades, and if so, what do you have planned, or what is
most likely?
What do you want this blog to achieve in the next 5 - 10 years?
11. Would you like to have another Amy Jacobson type of thread where there hundreds & hundreds of comments, some of which really were vicious? Plus, what blogger do you no longer read & why?
12. How would you would complete the following sentence, "Blogging is a ________ medium"?
13: If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done
differently 10 years ago? If time, money or technology were not an
obstacle, what would you do differently about this blog? Do you miss the
days when there were more layers between us common folk and you gate
keepers of the media? What earns a comment a Zorn Reply? I believe I've
seen some people make the same point but obviously only one gets a nod.
Is it time, not wanting to play favorites, a combination thereof, or
something else?