fireside chat with tony pierce
I’ve been reading tony pierce for pretty much as long as I’ve been reading blogs. I’ve purchased his books and rooted for him all the way from the xbi to laist to now the big time latimes. He still updates his famous busblog (where he writes about women, music, and sometimes politics, sometimes religion, sometimes his job.) As the blog editor for the LA Times, he oversees that entire section of the site. That’s kind of amazing, considering the fact that he wrote a lot of revealing stuff in his blog over the years. It says a lot about LA Times’ forward-thinking editors who clearly value and respect and understand blogging. Anyhow, seeing that we’re now working in the same kind of profession (overseeing and producing online content as part of a newspaper-branded site), I wanted to get his insight on some topics.
Me: Are there any new trends you’re seeing in the blogging world that bother you?
Tony: Most of the new trends I love: Twitter, Tumblr, FriendFeed, SocialThing, because they are helping bring back the idea that the individual bloggers’ lives matter and those tools make it easier for people to share their experiences with their readers.
The only trend that bothers me, as you say, is the ongoing obsession with people trying to make money off their blogs. I am speaking of the popularity of the Make Money Blogging blogs. These blogs don’t tell the truth about blogging which is: less than one-tenth of one percent of blogs make any real money. You’re better off playing the lottery or OMG getting a second job (or a better primary job) than thinking you can either tweak your blog into some sort of money-making machine.
There are over 100 million blogs out there and about 500 people making money blogging. You have a better chance being a starting quarterback in the NFL. So if you want to blog, blog and forget about the money. Do it because you want to express yourself. If you wanna make money: get a damn job.
Me: Does your new job ever make you feel like a sellout?
Tony: To me, selling out is doing something simply for money that you really don’t love. Working for the LA Times is a dream come true and a job I’ve been wanting for a very long time and I love it. I can’t even really believe I have this job. There have been two Pulitzer Prize winners who have sat at my desk and typed on my keyboard. So damn cool. Me having this job is probably a lot like how Theo Epstien feels about being the GM for the Red Sox – outsiders who always loved this Old School iconic thing, and somehow we get to work for it in a major way due to our New School beliefs and ways.
Working for the love of things is the polar opposite of selling out. It is what people should be doing more of.
Me: As someone who has worked for a small web site within a large company for several years now, sometimes I feel like we’re always chasing the next big thing in new media. Do you feel any pressure at the LA Times to be the trendsetters?
Tony: The Times has not earned its reputation by setting trends, but by being credible and delivering news in a timely fashion. So trendsetting is not a pressure that I think anyone here has ever felt. We have other pressures, like competing with new sources of news like Yahoo, CNN, and those 100 million other blogs.
Do you pay the LA Times bloggers?
Tony: Yes. Even our interns get paid here. It’s quite a different world, in that respect than most of the blogosphere.
Me: What section of the newspaper do you typically take with you to the bathroom?
Tony: The best thing about working at a newspaper is you can carry the paper with you and no one knows you’re headed to the john. I like to bring Metromix in there because a) it’s fantastic and b) I like to leave it in there as a passive-aggressive way of sharing it with my cohorts. Metromix is owned by Tribune Corp but doesn’t always get all the love that it deserves. It’s sorta like the (hot) red-headed stepchild, I feel.
Me: Did you go to your senior prom? What do you remember about it?
Tony: I did go to the senior prom. Even though it was a long time ago, I remember everything, in vivid detail. I went with a junior named Claudia who had dated one of my closest friends, Mike, but he broke up with her a month or two before prom. I wanted to go with my quasi-girlfriend Mary but she had moved and her parents wouldn’t let her fly back to me because they had found out that my mom was going to be out of town that weekend.
I remember clearly how I asked her to prom. I was very superstitious back then and I said to myself, if a good song comes on the radio I will ask Claudia to prom, if not I will beg Mary to go with me one last time. The Kinks’ “Come Dancing” came on and I asked her, she said yes, we kissed, and I thought all would be well.
When Prom came, she looked great (she eventually was Homecoming Queen the next year), I put the corsage on her, etc., but when we got to the dance she didn’t wanna dance. She said she was “sick”. She didn’t seem sick to me, so I was pissed and me and all of my friends, like Mike all danced together in front of the band. I didn’t even kiss her goodnight when I dropped her off.
Turned out it was that time of the month for Claudia, but because she was 16 she didn’t really know how to share that info with me, since we really didn’t know each other all that well. I felt awful. So what I learned was, if a woman says she’s sick, be super cool, cuz it might mean something that men couldn’t fathom.
Me: Favorite songs right now?
Tony: Lil Wayne “I’m Me” and The Ting Tings “That’s Not My Name”.
Tags: tony pierce
blogging, current affairs, pop culture, workplace | kristen May 14, 2008