COMMENT: Online journalism is all about the fish you throw back
It’s three months today since we launched Mumbrella.
And things seem to have gone okay. According to Google analytics, we’re seeing traffic of about 20,000 unique visitors a month, and getting on for 100,000 page views a month.
I’m starting to think I may actually make a living from this thing. It’s early days, but we’ve begun to put a few ads on our email (which we currently publish on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). I’m working on some design tweaks that soon will let us put ads on the site too. And I think we’ll make a modest profit on next month’s Mumbrella masterclass on social media.
But what’s been most fascinating is viewing from the sharp end the changing role of the journalist.
I trained on what was the area’s paper of record – every 100th birthday, golden wedding anniversary, parish council meeting, inquest, local and district court hearing, caged bird show, stolen car, shed fire or last animal would be covered.
Now it feels like journalism’s role has changed – to that of gatekeeper. The job is no longer to gather every speck of information for the reader and give them everything – it’s the opposite, to try to understand what may interest the reader, and make active decisions what not to write about. Those who know their reader’s interests best are rewarded with their trust and attention – whether in print or online.
And this is where I break into an extended metaphor which I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. It may not apply to all journalism, but it feels appropriate for Mumbrella.
Imagine the journalist is sitting on a bridge over a river with a fishing rod, and perhaps a handy barbecue at his side. The middle of the river is fast flowing, while the sides trickle by slowly.
The journalist’s job is to feed those who come past. It’s up to those passing whether they stop, and how long for – it’s going to depend on the quality and quantity of the fare served up.
So the journalist has to come up with a strategy on how to feed his hungry group.
Zipping past in the middle are the small fish. They’re going past quickly, but there are plenty of them. Pretty much all the journo has to do is dip a net in, grab a tiddler, season it and quickly cook it for his guests. But it’s not a big meal, and the guests can see plenty of other bridges where the same type of fish is being served in almost the same way.
Those smaller fish, of course, are the press releases and similar. Any time you open your email, there’s one coming through – and if you miss it, another will soon be along to take its place. And although they don’t take much time and effort, you’re not going to build your reputation with your customers by serving up just these. Indeed, if they’re too scrawny, you should probably throw them back and not waste your guests’ time with them.
So the fisherman/ chef needs some other options.
One is to try and land a whopper as it goes past. But this is a risky strategy. For starters, you can spend ages with it dangling, but the line could snap and it will get away, meaning you’ve nothing to give your guests. And if you do land it, it will still need a far greater investment of time in preparing it.
But if you’ve picked the right fish and served it up right, the dish’s reputation quickly spreads and plenty of other guests drop by to sample it. If you’re lucky they may take in a couple of your other dishes while they’re here.
These of course are the exclusive stories where you have to do a lot of digging, and talk to a lot of people. Mumbrella’s most linked-to article to date was our revelation that the girl who appeared in news reports getting a tattoo to win Tourism Queensland’s best job in the world contest worked for the ad agency. It took time to stand up, but generated traffic and conversation. But there have been other potential stories that fell flat on their faces without being published at all. The bigger the fish, the greater the risk that you’ll waste your time and never get to serve it.
And sometimes what you dig up is a bit lame, but having invested time, you have to try to find a way to present the burned remains to your readers in as palatable a form as possible.
Another investment of time is that one should regularly leave one’s seat on the bridge, and go and talk to other knowledgeable fisherman. You may come back with some great tips on which fish to go after, but it’s a time consuming process, with no guarantee of immediate results. And if you’re away for too long, your guests will have left.
That of course is when one takes time out to check in with contacts, either on the phone or in person. Yet again, the best stories come this way, but risk delivering an empty plate in the short term.
I could go on. Twitter, for instance, consists of the fastest moving, and most plentiful fishes of all. But the vast majority are absolute tiddlers, and it takes patience to find the real prizes. Local and global marketing blogs can also deliver tasty fare for Mumbrella to write about. But for every decent posting, one has to throw 20 or more back in the water.
But what all of this means for journalists is we have to change our mind set. It’s not about covering everything. It’s about choosing the best selection from the stream as it goes by – and living with the fact that our job is to discard most of what we catch.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Great insight – thanks for sharing guys.
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I think that nicely sums up the dilemma of any blogger/journalist. There’s that ever present effort/reward paradigm that seems to emphatically mirror real life.
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Keep fishin Tim. You’re on a winner. Tight lines!
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You must be doing well now Tim as you have pissed off Laurel on her latest blog post (is there anyone she isn’t angry with?)
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Congrats on the early success Tim and identifying the glaring gap in the local market. While the RSS tends to gather a bit of dust these days, Mumbrella is one I still try to get to regularly.
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Good work Tim – glad to hear you can take it full time to see it bigger than ever. Nice one.
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Great article Tim. Insightful and educational. You have been a great addition to my reading list and the adland media.
Best…Stan
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Let’s be honest mate, until you can find a way to incorporate footy news and racing tips Mumbrella will never be taken seriously. Especially by Queensland island caretakers.
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Completely agree with your take – great insight. With information becoming ubiquitous, the “sort” is becoming the real value add, not just the “catch”.
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Congrats on Mumbrella’s success, and interesting reading your take on online journalism.
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Congrats on a great site. I get a lot of crap in my inbox, but I always look for your email update. Good luck with everything.
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Keep up the good work, Tim!
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Hi Tim – your’e spot on with the fishing analogy, as a reader/subscriber I don’t always want to have to browse through reams of articles with the same news being reported on across x amount of different enewsletters and feeds etc – I just want to know about what’s interesting today and I trust Mumbrella to find something different, entertaining and relevant for me.
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great analogy Tim and great that you may start to make some money. well done. just a note on the journo’s task: it has always been about sorting and throwing out the rubbish, as well as crafting and serving the good catch.
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Gotta love a good piscatorial analogy Tim! I agree with your thinking 100% (and that’s coming from an ex-journo).
As news becomes more and more commoditized (and speed to market becomes mind-numbingly quick), newspapers and magazines – for example -need to re-think their offering/s.
Personally, I think print/online media combos (and bloggers) are really well-positioned to add value in terms of exclusives (news), depth (opinion) and colour (features).
In a constant and swirling sea (excuse pun) of bite-sized nuggets of information (news), what sets writers/media outlets apart is the ability to add genuine value through analysis, comment, review and breaking (as opposed to regurgitated) news, as well as lively interaction with readers (the latter being a key point of differentiation between bloggers and traditional news outlets).
Of course, all this requires a change of mind-set for traditional journalists/media operators, as well as an ability to focus (or throw back the small fish, as you so eloquently put it).
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Despite my somewhat negative comments on some posts, I really enjoy your enewsletters and find them the most relevant and insightful of all. And being in the advertising industry – I completley understand (and don’t mind) that your revenue must come from advertising.
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Cheers
Lisa
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Tim – congrats on getting cashed up! Your piece here reminds me of the role of department stores vs boutique stores. The buyers have to select product that will appeal to their shoppers. And when the stock runs short… or when the retailer says they’re not going to bother stocking many SKUs, shoppers move on to the store with the better selection. Maybe I’m spending too much time working with retailers these days! In short, am enjoying your selection of stories. Ta. J
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love the site, tim, but sad as I can’t find one of the early articles where you referred to someone as ‘entirely human’.
it was very good but now it has vanished.
Hi Ben,
Perhaps I can be of service. This may be the one to which you refer:
https://mumbrella.com.au/2008/12/11/the-media-vs-laurel-papworth/
Hope it doesn’t leave you overwhelmed with waves of nostalgia…
Cheers,
Tim
Reminds me Tim, I need to learn fishing. Half of your mumbo jumbo went over my head like the bream smell at Sunnybank Hills fish market.
I am a recent convert to Brisbane from two months, so excuse my ranting. Good show mate – from a two month old to a three month old!
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Congratulations, Tim. To get that kind of audience after three months in the Australian market, without SEO trickery or zillions of banner ads, is pretty good!
Cheers, Chris
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There’s a wider point here; what we’re losing in an age of fast aggregated online news and opinionated bloggers. That is, editorial judgement: the skill of taking an event and putting it in context, and then ordering it among other events of the day.
Some may say it’s liberating to be free of editors deciding what they think we should read. I reckon what we will really mourn with the death of newspapers is the death of an editorial-based package of information; information that journalists have applied journalism to, putting the news of the day in order and context.
I tried to make the point here: http://importanceofideas.com/2.....ournalism/
As you rightly say: “The job is no longer to gather every speck of information for the reader and give them everything – it’s the opposite, to try to understand what may interest the reader, and make active decisions what not to write about. Those who know their reader’s interests best are rewarded with their trust and attention – whether in print or online.”
Let’s hope online produces a model that allows for this: traditional impartial journalism (or at least separated from opinion – and I really respect your decision to clearly label your “rants” from other content) that tailors and contextualises news for specific audiences. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone really do this yet…
You might be a REAL pioneer. I certainly wish you well. I’ll be reading.
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