11 months ago I asked where are all the good UK blogs? Now, almost a year later Ashley Norris the former founder of UK blog network Shiny Media wrote a piece on TechCrunch on why he thinks blog publishing in the UK has failed.
As someone who has been blogging for over 3 years now and has recently entered the content business I found it a fascinating read. I have to say that I agree (as I did a year ago) that we don't have many huge high profile UK blogs like they do in the USA for example. However I don't agree that the BBC is to blame, after all competition is healthy. If you read the comments you'll see a bit of a fight going on and some rather heated discussion - and accusations.
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Why blog publishing in the UK has “failed”
3 Responses to Why blog publishing in the UK has “failed”
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Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
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The Techcrunch link makes great reading. It certainly evoked a lot of feeling amongst the blogging community. Somewhere around the 50th comment somebody had just replied “Fight fight fight” which summed it up pretty well I thought.
A lot of people blamed the failure of blogs aimed at UK readers because the market or “number of eyeballs” is inherently smaller. I cant see this myself and as the global and US blog markets get saturated I expect smaller localised markets (eg the UK) will start to get targetted more by the big players. A bit like Tesco’s sprawl of local convenient stores in the last 5 years.
By the way Kieron, I remember one of your inspirational posts about WordPress blogs back in Jan. I was wondering what became of your cousin’s Beautyglam site as it seemed to only last a few weeks after your post. My wife started a UK fashion blog a few months ago and it is definitely worth persevering because rewards do come for those who are patient(even in the UK !)
I think this depends on what you mean by “failed.” OK there may be fewer big-brand bloggers earning a high profile living at it but frankly I don’t think this represents a failure.
Most of the blogs I read that aren’t about my work – blogs I read for pleasure – in fact, I take that back, ALL the blogs I read for pleasure are one or two-person outfits and they are not there simply to make a fast buck for the blogger.
I’d rather read one person’s hard work and opinion than a blog like Mashable that just regurgitates press releases.
Just because blogging in the UK is more grassroots – you could argue that it’s more true to the original idea of the web log – does not mean that blogging in the UK is a failure. It just means online efforts at moneymaking are coming in other sectors.
was a great slanging match in comments, i love these little fights that occasionally erupt. not hugely professional of the participants but fun as a spectator.