It's Hard Out Here For A Blog Pimp

Last night, WNBC’s local news operation held its first ever Blogger Summit meeting.

How’d that turn out?

Bloggers descended on 30 Rock, the corporate headquarters of NBC, for an evening filled with free shrimp and the magic of new technology. Shrimp was a key part of the event, as it was mentioned several times by NBC employees. There were two big surprises last night, the first being that the summit meeting would be held in Conan O’Brien’s studio, just across the hall from the shrimp filled local news studio.

The second surprise was a real doozy. WNBC had gathered more than 100 bloggers to discuss plans for a new blog/network partnership. As might be expected, skepticism filled the room.

The crux of WNBC’s plan is simple: have blogs give their local news operation tips on stories. In exchange, WNBC will vet those stories out and include them in their newscasts and on their website. In exchange, WNBC will give blogs credit for breaking the story first. The idea, said one WNBC exec, is for the local news division and bloggers to “make life better for each other.”

The event was coordinated by Erin Montiero, WNBC’s interactive content specialist and the new point person at the network for news-blogger relations. Montiero released the results of a survey bloggers filled out in advance of the event, which found that 1/3 of bloggers don’t make any money from their work and that the bulk of those in attendance blog only part time.

But the most interesting note from Montiero came when she said that not one blogger who filled out the survey indicated that they found local television news at all helpful in their blog work. Montiero said she was surprised by that, but hoped that would change.

Sree Sreenivasan, the network’s new technology reporter fresh from a stint at WABC, moderated the conversation, and took questions from a somewhat puzzled blog audience, many of whom whispered under their breath about the merits of the plan. Would bloggers get paid? Would WNBC really give them credit?

That’s the idea, though whether it is actually feasible is another story. Blogs have been very critical of the mainstream media (MSM) since the dawn of blogdom, and the survey details as read by Montiero would indicate that bloggers, at least bloggers in New York City, view local television news as the lowest form of the MSM imaginable.

When a blogger from the popular gossip blog BestWeekEver.tv mentioned jokingly that “90% of what we cover is a lie,” the assembled bloggers collectively laughed. Only later did the typical old media line, that bloggers are not real media and cannot be trusted, rear its ugly head in the form of brief commentary from WNBC’s investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst, who let the room know that WNBC is a news organization first and would never, ever, ever, lower its standards to curry favor with any blogger.

[Lighten up, Francis], the 90% line was a joke. Investigative reporting at most local news station usually means hiding a camera in a purse to expose your local deli worker making a sandwich without the proper gloves and hairnet. “Salad bar of death” stories, as I like to call them. I don’t think many bloggers would have a hard time living up to this high journalistic standard.

Bloggers were also confronted with the general tech-dumbness of the MSM, which anchor David Ushery honestly admitted he thought meant “metrosexual.” Bloggers alerted WNBC throughout the night that their video player sucked, their website was useless and that their content as it stands now is virtually unusable. Montiero, Sreenivasan and others vowed to make their content more usable for the blog community, though many in the room would later wonder if any network would ever really allow its video to be embedded on a website they didn’t control themselves.

And would they really give bloggers credit? WNBC said they would, but just a handful of bloggers I spoke to felt the network would do the right thing in the end. Sure, it might be easy to give credit to a political blog, but would a major network really give credit to, say, EastVillageIdiot.com? Could an MSM anchor, schooled in the traditional art of reporting news, ever bring himself to utter the name of a lowly blog on the air?

At the end of the night, one blogger expressed his disgust loudly on the elevator ride back to the lobby. “Our local news operation is dying!” he yelled. “Do our work for us! Do it for free! We’ll say your name on TV!!!” For many in the room, WNBC is attempting to reinvent itself as a news pimp, with each blog their virtual whore on the street. Report back to daddy and we’ll take care of you, tell you that you’ve been a good ho, and give you a little treat. Not cash, but a televised mention. They won't inflate your wallet, but they will inflate your ego and appeal to your sense of vanity.

WNBC executives said this was just the start of the process, adding that they would hold similar events in the future. Filling a room is no problem when you’re giving away shrimp. But most bloggers have taken a “wait and see” attitude towards the network, uncomfortable in the idea that any local television network would make such a blatant move to piggyback on their work.

“You are the future,” said one WNBC executive at the event. But to bloggers, local television news like WNBC represent the very distant past. When asked by news director Dan Forman how many in the room would like to see local television stop broadcasting the news altogether, at least half of the room raised their hands. Local television news is dying a slow death, largely brought on by the rise of new media like the blog.

Why would a cold-blooded killer try to resuscitate his victim?

Read more about the summit, and watch video from the event, [here]. Two picture notes. In the first slideshow, notice photo 29. On the right, you will see the most unappetizing view of the Italian cold cut mortadella you could ever imagine. Mortadella is gross as a thinly sliced meat, as it is mostly chunks of fat and pistachio nuts to begin with. But to see it in big triangular hunks is somewhat unsettling, and it's no surprise that it went untouched.

In picture 47, you'll find a handsome man in a white shirt and glasses jotting down some notes. That, my friends, is me. And sorry ladies, he's taken. Quick journalism rule: always make sure your picture gets taken at these events, it's the best way to prove to your bosses that you actually showed up.