Blogs to print

The first blog to go "old media" and spin into a print edition was Silicon Valley's AlwaysOn. Founder and editor Tony Perkins (in one of his former lives he presided over the original Red Herring magazine) figured that the stories, interviews, guest columns and other posts that AO was putting online, if re-edited by incorporating the readers' comments and suggestions and criticism, could make for a good magazine. In the spring of 2005 AO published the first issue of its eponymous quarterly "blogozine", which featured Google's CEO Eric Schmidt on the cover under the headline "Happy times again!". More than half of the content came from readers and guest bloggers (what Tony calls "AO community members"). The subsequent issues proved that Tony had seen it right.
Since, blogs have grown in number and quality and potential for broader-public interest. Some of them have become books (particularly those that navigate in prurient waters - think Washingtonienne or Muzi Mei's Chinese erotic diaries - or in controversial issues - like the upcoming Bondy Blog book - or served as vehicle for tapping into the collective wisdom and knowledge while researching books (John Battelle, Chris Anderson, Dan Gillmor and others).
Now a small trend seems to be gathering speed: print news publications that take their materials from blogs. A few weeks ago, the Swiss newsmagazine L'Hebdo (in French) published a special issue on blogging which included a supplement of "blog excerpts", "so that our readers, which for the most part probably know little - if anything - about blogs, could have a sense of what's really being said and discussed there", the editor, Alain Jeannet, told me. More recently, a new monthly magazine was launched in Paris, called Netizen, fully devoted to "la révolution blog" including a best-of section with texts reprinted from blogs. Moreover, many newspapers around the world have published articles and op-eds derived from blog posts. And there are certainly numerous other examples that I am not aware of (If you know any, please click on "comment" and add them).
Now a Dutch group is preparing to launch (probably in March) the first newsweekly in tabloid format exclusively based on blogs content (picture of the test issue from bright.nl). "We will start with the blogs that are displayed on our portal startlog.nl", Jorrit Kreek, one of the founders, told me per e-mail. Startlog.nl  (a free platform) currently hosts nearly 4500 blogs. "We will choose the most interesting and inspiring posts, including the readers' comments". The idea behind the newspaper, which will be called startlog, is that "we want to be the 'other' source of information", says Kreek. He adds: "The blogoscene produces already a lot of quality content. Editing and publishing a selection of it in print will give the bloggers a broader audience and make the blogoscene more transparent for the non-bloggers. And the paper will be the missing link for brands between the offline and online world". Initial circulation will be 50'000 and the mag will be printed on light-green paper and distributed for free, financed by ads.
Editorially, putting together a good magazine based solely on bloggers' writing seems like an interesting idea (pictures may be an issue though, as many of those published on blogs are low-resolution). Dirk Spiers recounts that Jorrit and his colleagues ran into a small problem while preparing the dummy: they did not ask some of the bloggers for permission to reprint their work. This was a test issue with a print of only 20 copies and no distribution outside of the team, so it doesn't seem like a big deal, but apparently some bloggers got angry. Startlog apologized ("we didn't ask for permission because we didn't want too many people to know about the idea at this stage", explains Jorrit) and promised that for the real thing they will seek explicit approval, and now many bloggers are, according to Dirk, fully behind the idea.
I asked Jorrit whether the magazine will pay the bloggers for their "contributions" or share with them the advertising revenues. Jorrit: "From the moment Startlog.nl makes profit, the bloggers will get part of the revenues; 5-to-10 % of the profit will be reserved for the bloggers' contributions". In a way, Startlog is trying to create a virtuous cycle: the more bloggers are active and post interesting stuff, the more they will be picked up by the paper (and the paper will become attractive for readers - and for advertisers), the more the company's revenue potential grows, "which will ultimately benefit the bloggers", says Jorrit.

Comments

[Thomas Crampton]

Bruno,

A further example for you:

About a month ago here at the International Herald Tribune we launched Digital Dialogue, a blog explicitly intended for publication.

Here's the blog:
http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/technology/index.php

Here's some of the articles that have come out of it:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/18/business/ptdigit19.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/08/business/ptdigit09.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/01/business/ptdigit02.php

It has been a fun experiment!

Thomas Crampton