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You probably don't read ex-Seattle Weekly reporter Philip Dawdy's blog Furious Seasons. That's ok. That's why we're here: to read every blog in existence and let you know when something interesting happens (which turns out to be rarely). Philip writes about clinical depression and the little cottage industry of humongous corporations that have grown up around that illness. It's a well-written and well-researched blog by a guy who's been working that beat for several years, so it's pretty popular in some circles. Mixed in with the reporting on anti-depression drugs is the occasional post on Dawdy's current state of affairs. That he's not currently fully-employed as a reporter, for example, is something that you might learn from his blog. That he has some concerns about the current state of the web and its effects on print journalism (and its effects on his current employment status) from time to time, is another thing you might learn.
With all of that in mind consider this email to Philip:
"I'm the blog editor for HealthTalk, a Seattle company whose site focuses exclusively on living with chronic illness (www.healthtalk.com). I found "Furious Seasons" while researching blogs about mental illness, but I've also read some of your work in the [my former employer, Seattle] Weekly.In July we plan to launch three new "networks" covering bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia, and I'm looking for bloggers who would be interested in creating an audience and community around each of those topics. The blogs (http://healthtalk.com/blogs/), most of which we aim to update 2-3 times per week, are a blend of personal experiences and reactions to news.
Do you think that writing a blog for HealthTalk would interest you? The work is unpaid, but the site could help attract an even larger audience for your work and views. I think an authoritative, thoroughly informed writer is crucial to building a strong following. (As an example, please see Trevis Gleason's "Life with MS" blog: http://blog.healthtalk.com/multiple-sclerosis/life-with-ms/)
If you aren't interested in writing for HealthTalk, I wonder if you can recommend other potential bloggers to cover bipolar disorder, depression or schizophrenia.
I really appreciate any help you can offer."
Uh oh, HealthTalk. You didn't just solicit free writing from a man who blames the internet for the demise of professional print journalism, who accuses Web 2.0 of turning us all into navel-gazing zombies and who holds Google accountable for stealing content and profiting from its sale. Did you? You did!
Dawdy responds (but since he doesn't respond in a Web 2.0 clip-friendly way you should really go read the whole thing):
Thank you for your email and interest in my work. It's been a long-standing dream of mine to write for free. I have 13 years as a paid professional print journalist who specializes in investigative reporting and has won two dozen or so awards for my work. I have graduate degrees from UC-Berkeley and the University of Utah and studied for a semester at Cambridge University as well. My work has been published in national, regional and local newspapers and magazines.But I know the world has turned due to the Web 2.0 paradigm of sharing and readers just don't like print media anymore because they can read wonderful content on sites like yours--or, paradoxically enough, on my blog--for free. And their hands stay clean! So I think it's time for me to stop pretending that I need to make a living from this kind of work and blog for free for a corporation whose executive suite features former Web MD employees, former Real Networks employees (can they introduce me to Sen. Maria Cantwell?) and former FDA officials. I am sure they are working for free too--in the interest of sharing information with the world.
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"...and who holds Google accountable for stealing content and profiting from its sale."
It's that attitude, in a nutshell, that's making old-school journalists look so asinine and antiquated these days. Google doesn't "steal" content, it indexes content. Readers find newspaper content through Google News, but to read the story they have to navigate to the newspaper site. Newspapers -- and reporters -- want that to happen. They want people to find and read their stories. Blaming Google for doing exactly what they want Google to do -- and implying that somehow Google is wrong for attempting to turn a profit in doing so -- is like accusing the city of stealing a portion of your restaurant's profits because it built a road that your customers drove on when getting there.
But no, I'm sure he's right. Google is bad. Much better if no one could ever find his blog because no search engine indexed it. Better still for him to write his blog on scraps of paper while hiding in the closet -- otherwise how will he know that no one will peer through his living room window and profit by his work without his authorization? Even better still is not to write at all, for fear that somehow someone will use that in a way he doesn't want them to. And from the sounds of it, that's just where he's headed: to not writing at all.
I love the attitude.
Those of us who work at writing for income--and many of us have done this a long time--are naturally shocked at the attitude of a site with resources that asks a writer to work free.
I don't hold citizen journalism accountable--that's a blessing of the Web. And I do think overall it is a blessing.
But if a revenue-producing site attempts to obtain free, expert content, well, that's a little like an oil refinery wanting free crude.
Some people write for income. They're just like teachers, doctors or hamburger flippers except they are in control of their own hours, resources and direction.
I didn't read the whole piece, so I'm simply addressing Dawdy's quotes in the article excerpt.
But writers don't work for free, not if it's work.
We will work for free out of passion for a topic, but hey, we can do a blog for free at that much-maligned Google. Post when we want to. And they have the most user-friendly reliable system around. IMO.
best to all, Kay Day
Jacksonville, Fla.