Food Blogs: Peaked Yet?

[Fat Guy]

as someone who makes his living writing, there are times when i think i can't make another deadline, but it is amazing how the thought of getting paid at the end of hte week pulls me through. if my only reward was a warm feeling, i'd probably go sit at the beach.

←

At the same time, if the only reward for writing is the paycheck then you may as well get a job at McDonald's! (Unless you're J.K. Rowling.) But otherwise I'd say nearly 100% of writers need to get many things out of it beyond the paycheck in order to make it worthwhile. A lot of the folks who are blogging recreationally already have a source of income, perhaps from a job that doesn't provide literary fulfillment, so they don't have to worry about getting paid. They can do it for the pure joy of it. For me, getting paid to write is nice -- essential, actually -- but everything I get paid to write comes with strings attached. There are editors, there are deadlines, there are space constraints, etc. Whereas, when I write online -- in my case my recreational writing consists of eG Forums posts as opposed to blog entries -- I have nearly complete freedom. I find that rewarding, even on top of my paid writing.

[russ parsons]

I still can't get over the fact that someone would go to all the work to write write something when there's no paycheck at the end.

←

What is work to one may be pleasure to another.

←

i'm afraid of being misunderstood on this point, so let me clarify: i still take a great deal of pleasure in writing (check my eg post count). and considering how fortunate i've been in my career, it would be unseemly for me to complain.

but the reality is that i've been writing about food for 20 years now and i'll tell you for sure that there have been times when i was staring at a blank screen and knowing i had to fill it that i would happily have chucked it all were it not for the fact that i have no other compensible skills.

writing for fun is one thing, but the burnout rate without that financial carrot is pretty high (and perfectly understandable). hence the short-lived nature of so many blogs.

i'm just sayin'.

[Fat Guy]

I'm just sayin' it's not necessarily accurate to project those motives and preferences onto the world of bloggers and writers at large. For one thing, the burnout rate is quite high among those who write for pay -- look at how many people write one book and never write another, or work at a newspaper for a year or two before going on to a non-writing career. For another thing, there are tons of people in the publishing industry, at every level from writers to editors and beyond, who have wealthy parents and don't need to work at all -- their newspaper, magazine and publishing company salaries barely cover their taxis and nightlife expenses. And for still another thing, I think you undersell yourself when you say you have no other skills. I'm confident that you could excel in many high-paying white-collar professions, if you wanted to. But you don't want to -- you'd rather make less money and write. Or maybe I'm projecting.

[The Old Foodie]

I still can't get over the fact that someone would go to all the work to write write something when there's no paycheck at the end.

←

What is work to one may be pleasure to another.

←

writing for fun is one thing, but the burnout rate without that financial carrot is pretty high (and perfectly understandable). hence the short-lived nature of so many blogs.

←

So what is the longest-running, purely-for-fun, unpaid "non-professional" food blog? Anyone have any ideas?

[russ parsons]

gosh, i think the word wasn't even invented until 1997 or so. i think the nearest equivalent would be food newsletters, which are notoriously underfunded. in that category, I think John Thorne and Ed Behr are probably the longest lived that i'm aware of.

[Fat Guy]

William Safire reported in the Times that the first contextual use of the term Blog that he could find dated to 1999. Certainly, in 1997, when I started doing what today everybody would call a blog, nobody every called it a blog. They called it a website. In 1998, when the New York Times did a short piece on my website, the news value was that there was an amateur critic out there keeping a restaurant review journal. Yes, there was a time when that was news.

I don't think the term really took hold, however, until the period 2002-2004, when the political blogs became important.

[Tess]

I've always thought this explanation of the origin of the term "blog" sounded likely:

http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

[Peter B Wolf]

Just read an article in the Times:

" All the World’s a Story '

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/business...ogy&oref=slogin

How does that move relate to Blogs ?

To quote in the above:

‘Markemorse’ says:

“ I think in some ways it's probably like any creative endeavor...it depends on why you got into it in the first place: if you did it for recognition or affirmation, you're going to keep doing it based on whether or not you achieve that and whether or not it satisfies you after all. “

and

‘JohnL’ says:

“The fact is that the vast majority of people

in the world are not interesting nor do they have anything interesting to say.

Can we all benefit from these ' futures ' ?

[russ parsons]

ruth reichl used to say that everybody had at least one great food story to tell, the biggest problem in foodwriting was the folks who didn't realize they had only one.

[Carrot Top]

ruth reichl used to say that everybody had at least one great food story to tell, the biggest problem in foodwriting was the folks who didn't realize they had only one.

←

I'm curious as to how that statement might be translated . . . i.e. did she mean that folks in foodwriting just stuck to one particular topic that they knew in food? Or did she mean that they wrote the same story over and over just in different words (in that the timbre of the story was the same but the facts fit to the timbre?) or that they stuck to one writing discipline rather than expanding into others that might do similar things in different ways?

I hope someone knows what I mean by this question.

[russ parsons]

ruth reichl used to say that everybody had at least one great food story to tell, the biggest problem in foodwriting was the folks who didn't realize they had only one.

←

I'm curious as to how that statement might be translated . . . i.e. did she mean that folks in foodwriting just stuck to one particular topic that they knew in food? Or did she mean that they wrote the same story over and over just in different words (in that the timbre of the story was the same but the facts fit to the timbre?) or that they stuck to one writing discipline rather than expanding into others that might do similar things in different ways?

←

if i may speak for ruth, what she meant was that too often people mistakenly believe that what fascinates them necessarily fascinates others. in some cases, this is true (and i'm sure, the internet being the internet, that there is probably at least one fascinatee for every fascinater). the problem is if you want to move beyond just writing to hear yourself type.

and i think that's where a lot of blogs fall down. as a professional food writer, i'm lucky in two ways: 1) i'm a reporter, so I don't have to rely on my own experiences for all of my stories; 2) i've got tough editors who do not fail to let me know when I fail to fascinate.

as someone wrote the other day about "citizen journalists": it'll be a great day when they actually do become journalists and not just opinion writers. my problem with most blogs is that so many of them are not about anything more than daily journals made public. the appeal of reading someone's inner thoughts varies with the quality of those thoughts. when writers actually do venture outside their own heads and report on things, I almost invariably find that more interesting than "here's what I love about/hate about..."

but hey, i'm old school.

[markemorse]

To quote a massive understatement from the linked NYT article, "the Web has transformed a lot of things..."

....the more we're talking about this, the more it's reminding me of what technology is doing to music publishing/recording, in terms of giving what has historically been professional-level distribution to motivated amateurs.

I'm not sure where Peter's loyalties lie here, but to try to answer his question: this can go one of two ways. Either we end up with a crowd of insta-pundits with flimsy credentials weighing in redundantly on topics with which we the readers are more familiar, or...(like eGullet), a distributed network of interested parties can create

a mulitfaceted discussion around a topic that covers more intelligent ground than one journalist is likely to be able to do.

Something I meant to differentiate earlier: one reason I hope blogs stick around for awhile is that as a consumer of blogs, I now have easy access to intelligent, opinionated content that has not been focus group-tested and otherwise marketing-homogenized to the point of utter non-offensive blandness. The term "professional blog", accepted though it may be, is kind of oxymoronic to me. As soon as there's a project manager or marketing person working on a blog, it is just another commercial website for me and I'm generally less interested.

mem

Edited March 19, 2007 by markemorse (log)

[Carrot Top]

and i think that's where a lot of blogs fall down. as a professional food writer, i'm lucky in two ways: 1) i'm a reporter, so I don't have to rely on my own experiences for all of my stories; 2) i've got tough editors who do not fail to let me know when I fail to fascinate.

as someone wrote the other day about "citizen journalists": it'll be a great day when they actually do become journalists and not just opinion writers. my problem with most blogs is that so many of them are not about anything more than daily journals made public. the appeal of reading someone's inner thoughts varies with the quality of those thoughts. when writers actually do venture outside their own heads and report on things, I almost invariably find that more interesting than "here's what I love about/hate about..."

←

Okay, yes, I can get that. And agree. I'm not sure, myself, whether what I want to ask for for Christmas would be a live-in editor or a live-in hairstylist. Maybe both. What luxury.

But is food-writing only opinion, criticism, journalism, or news? Is it ever fiction? Or do you walk outside the circle when you write fiction that is inspired by, and "about", in ways, food?

[docsconz]

But is food-writing only opinion, criticism, journalism, or news? Is it ever fiction? Or do you walk outside the circle when you write fiction that is inspired by, and "about", in ways, food?

←

Why wouldn't it include fiction? If the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and letters is any indicator, it most clearly does. Witness The Oyster House Siege, Jay Rayner's fictional opus for example.

[Fat Guy]

So what is the longest-running, purely-for-fun, unpaid "non-professional" food blog? Anyone have any ideas?

←

No idea, but I'd love to know.

When we started the eGullet (then .com) website in 2001, there were several existing websites that would now be called food blogs. Our original team of hosts consisted of several of these pre-bloggers. The thing is, I think they've all gone pro. So, for example, Mamster's Grubshack was around, but now Mamster (Matthew Amster-Burton) writes about food professionally. He has changed his website name to Roots & Grubs, and now lots of the blog entries are "Here's my latest newspaper article on X." Andy Lynes, who had a site called The Food Store when we started out, started writing professionally and changed his website to UK Gourmet and later just andylynes.com. Holly Moore and Rosie Saferstein had web presence as well, though I believe they were doing professional work before then. My website, shaw-review.com, started in 1997 and became fat-guy.com later on. After we started the eGullet venture, it was unsustainable (and, I felt, inappropriate) for me to divide my online time, so I shut down fat-guy.com and redirected everybody here.

[agalarneau]

I'm new at foodblogging, but I've been a professional writer who loves to cook for almost 20 years. I decided to go forward despite the plethora of amazing, better-than-I-will-ever-be blogs because there is no one doing it where I am, in and around Buffalo, N.Y.

We do love to eat, though, and since I am a reporter I believe there will be value to gathering an audience to see what's out there. Say, interviewing the one guy who brings sheep's milk yogurt to the farmer's market and posting an edited interview.

I'm going to be going and finding the best stuff within an hour's drive and Toronto anyway. I might as well shoot it and share it.

[Fat Guy]

As a corollary to the Reichl theory, often the people with the greatest number of interesting stories to tell don't have time to tell them.

One of the issues we discussed around here a lot, back when food blogs were becoming prevalent (around 2003 it was), was how best to incorporate blog-type content here. We figured -- and we turned out to be right about this -- that some of the most interesting cooks and diners out there simply don't have any interest in blogging forever. But, we thought, maybe they'd like to blog for a week or two.

We institutionalized the eG Foodblogs in the hopes that we'd bring out interesting people, and by keeping it short term we were sure we'd be able to keep everybody interested. The eG Foodblogs are now a feature that a lot of our members really love. Those who want to give it a try will find all the info here.

[MarketStEl]

I still can't get over the fact that someone would go to all the work to write write something when there's no paycheck at the end.

←

What is work to one may be pleasure to another.

Again, I'll reference cooking. Not all the chefs in the world cook solely for a "warm feeling".

←

Samuel Johnson famously wrote, "None but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

I violate this rule every time I post here, and I do write for money, too. Just not about food, at least not lately.

A former colleague and still friend of mine warned me away from applying for an opening in SEPTA's public relations department with the advice, "Never make your avocation your vocation." A lot of the really good blogs out there are, or at least started out as, avocations; if someone else decides that a person is so good at his or her avocation that she or he deserves to get paid for it, I don't think that's a real violation of this principle.

I consider the ability of many in cyberspace to flagrantly flout Dr. Johnson's axiom one of the beautiful things about the 'Net. But as has already been noted, it can prove exhausting, and if it gets to that point, oftentimes the choice one makes is to get paid or get out.

[snekse]

As The Blissful Glutton and agalarneau both touched on, I think there are a lot of niche blogs out there that are covering spaces that are just not as saturated as others (e.g. smaller cities, fringe food movements) that have a good chance of surviving.

In this current glut of food blogs, in order to survive you need at least one of the following:

* a very interesting writing style (ala The Amateur Gourmet)

* a unique point of view (ala Ideas In Food)

* coverage of a niche segment (ala Candy Addict)

* a lot of friends/history/media coverage (ala Chez Pim)

Starting a food blog with thoughts about well known restaurants in the San Francisco bay area in quickly thrown together posts is probably a venture doomed to fail. On the other hand, you can start something with a laser tight focus as a joke and be surprised at the number of readers you'll attract (ala I Hate Cilantro).

I've had an Atlanta restaurant blog for about a year and a half. I started it because my BF was sick of hearing me talk about food all the time....We don't have that many here in Atlanta compared to other large metropolitan cities, so I guess it is a bit different.

←

I'm new at foodblogging, but I've been a professional writer who loves to cook for almost 20 years. I decided to go forward despite the plethora of amazing, better-than-I-will-ever-be blogs because there is no one doing it where I am, in and around Buffalo, N.Y.

←

[Carrot Top]

Looking through my Bookmarks I was struck by the numbers of places that looked interesting but I've rarely returned to-of course there are dozens of Blogs bookmarked.

←

Why do you not return to them, Sam? What is it that keeps your finger from making that click of destiny?

[Carrot Top]

But as has already been noted, it can prove exhausting, and if it gets to that point, oftentimes the choice one makes is to get paid or get out.

←

I guess that the idea of a *daily* blog is where this danger lies, Sandy.

Thank goodness there is no law that says one has to add to a blog, daily, though.

It's a way of ensuring audience involvement, yes - but as noted before many people don't think of their blogs within a specific business model that would require that, for whatever reason it would be required for.

A blog can be whatever one wants it to be, really. We don't need to draw a box around it, I hope.

[russ parsons]

A former colleague and still friend of mine warned me away from applying for an opening in SEPTA's public relations department with the advice, "Never make your avocation your vocation." 

←

i guess it works differently for different people. personally, one of the great blessings of my vocation (journalism) has been that i've always been able to work my avocations into them. there is no separation between what i do for a living and what i do for fun. for me, this makes an ideal life.

[Fat Guy]

there is no separation between what i do for a living and what i do for fun

←

On one level that's surely the case -- you love what you do, and think it's fun -- but on another level I've got to question the absoluteness of the statement. As an analogy, a porn star might say "there is no separation between what i do for a living and what i do for fun," but there's still a difference between recreational sex (where you choose your partner, and maybe even like the person) and sex for hire (on camera, on demand, with whomever they tell you to do it, in whatever position they say, even if you don't feel like it at that moment). As someone who has done it both ways -- writing, that is -- I can say that recreational writing offers many rewards, not least of which is near-complete freedom and independence. And that's not the same as, "My editor gives me tons of freedom." When you're blogging, nobody has to give you anything -- you just take it.

[Carrot Top]

Here's some blogs I'd like to see - different disciplines viewed through the lens of, of linked to, food . . .food in literature (as written by someone who reads a lot, who knows a lot about both food and critical reading); food in art (written by someone who knows art history, who also knows food); the same for architecture, the same for any number of subjects. Food in cars, anyone?

I'd like to see more than recipes, restaurants, and food porn, in other words.

Edited March 20, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[tammylc]

As The Blissful Glutton and agalarneau both touched on, I think there are a lot of niche blogs out there that are covering spaces that are just not as saturated as others (e.g. smaller cities, fringe food movements) that have a good chance of surviving. 

In this current glut of food blogs, in order to survive you need at least one of the following:

* a very interesting writing style (ala The Amateur Gourmet)

* a unique point of view (ala Ideas In Food)

* coverage of a niche segment (ala Candy Addict)

* a lot of friends/history/media coverage (ala Chez Pim)

Starting a food blog with thoughts about well known restaurants in the San Francisco bay area in quickly thrown together posts is probably a venture doomed to fail.  On the other hand, you can start something with a laser tight focus as a joke and be surprised at the number of readers you'll attract (ala I Hate Cilantro). 

I think this analysis is spot on. And moreover, I think it relates to a lot more on the net than food blogging. Specialization, not generalization, seems to be one of the earmarks of success in the Internet age. Specialization positions you (rightly or wrongly) as an authority amidst a see of non-specific commentary.

I started a foodblog last summer, as a place to aggregate the wide variety of writing about food I was doing. I have an online journal, and this was meant to be distinct from that. As others have described, I had a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning (aiming for a post every day) and that has diminished in time as my energy has been going to other pursuits. I still update a couple/few times a week, but, ironically, the biggest difference is that it's gotten more journal-like. When I started, I was creating content for the blog, now I'm mostly only posting in response to things that happen. Hopefully I'll find the time again to give it some attention. In the meantime, I'm always interested and intrigued to see what google keywords drive people to my blog, and happy when I see someone asking question that I know I've just provided an answer to.