absolutelyBangkok archive · News & Media
Originally published Oct. 13, 2009
Not too long ago to blog by nature was part of an underground, anti-establishment network of supposedly amateurish spin doctors and wannabe opinion makers who weren’t really read. Some made a few bucks along the way, some could garner a respectable readership, others were in for a single minute of fame, a few got established while the majority kept on writing for themselves.
Not much has changed since. And a lot has changed. To blog remains a lonely task. With the exception that many blogs have come of age and, along the way, the blogosphere has influenced the news business per se.
CNNGo is a recent incarnation of an established name attempting to package news, lifestyle, travel and fun into the concept of a, yes, blog. By integrating blog functionalities and bloggers.
The latest, vastly more political kid on the block is Asian Correspondent.com with a beta site going public on Oct. 19, 2009. Bloggers again play an integral part in this interesting site offering a mixture between AP news content and opinionated, localized commentary aka blogs. With the difference being that AC pays bloggers quite well. For a labor of love. The downside: A blog’s web domain will be forwarded to AC’s platform. Which is one drawback among many positives — but why I declined a contract?
Writing for Asian Correspondent wouldn’t be subject to direct editorial control or restrictions. Any blogger on board keeps on writing what he or she has been writing all along. But www.absolutelyBangkok.com which I started two years ago would have become www.AsianCorrespondent.com/absolutelyBangkok.
The initial agreement is good for one year. I would have lost any control over layout and comments for one year. So what, you say. Why say no to many thousands of more hits. Call me a romantic and the design of aB.com boring and content so-so, but somehow this unimportant little site grew from nothing into something and, seriously, hidden somewhere behind AC’s main portal I’d fear to descend into oblivion among dozens of outstanding fellow bloggers chasing headlines and a front mention on AC.
For the sake of independence, what’s it worth?
They’re amazingly dedicated people behind AC and the site will have an impact on Asian news reporting. It’s a new, it’s a hybrid concept complementing and at the same time challenging the likes of Asia Times and Asia Sentinel and other sites with more personalized, less mainstream news.
They got interesting names for their Thailand correspondents in the pipeline, you’re probably familiar with the names. Soon we’ll know. If you yourself feel the urge to write for AC there will be a page to submit own articles. And, that’s right, there’s even a page to submit your details to get employed.
Wish you luck.
And it’s great to add another bookmark for Asian news.
Blogs catch on.
Bloggers have most certainly carved out new territory.
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