Should Streetsblog Go Commercial?
It’s something I continue to think about. What could Streetsblog accomplish if they went commercial? That is, what could they achieve if they tried to go sustainable, thus enabling themselves to cover more than just New York, Los Angeles, and soon, San Francisco?
This ‘network’ of coverage was the idea behind the blog you’re reading right now - which was to have been part of a ‘Bike Blog Network’ - a ‘BikePortland.org for every city and town that wants one.’ It didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean that it should not happen.
I don’t know the details of how Streetsblog gets money to pay for infrastructure and talent, but I understand it’s basically people with money wanting to change things. They somehow create or find out about Streetsblog and think, “Darn - that looks like an interesting place to put some money.” All of this is fine, of course, except that then we are limited to (almost) only three cities gaining coverage in over three years - that’s not good enough.
I want the biggest 100 US cities to have their own Streetsblog by the end of 2009. What about a ginormous place like Dallas that is struggling for even minimal bike infrastructure?
How can we make this happen?
Do we go out and find deep-pocketed donors in each town? Do we advise Streetsblog to go out and start selling advertising? Soliciting donations? Build a wire service? Everything is on the table. With the rise of craigslist and the collapse of the auto industry, the mainstream newspaper business is going down. Even local television ad revenues are drying up with the dying of the automotive industry. They’ll still be around in some form, but many will not adjust their reporting and coverage in time to reflect the concerns of the growing number of people like us who care about the future of the places we live. Can we use the massive economic crisis upon us right now to fundamentally realign mass media in the U.S.? Taking over the stupid box won’t happen overnight, but maybe, with more livable streets, we can slowly replace it. Who wants to watch fear-mongering when there is real and fun action going on in the streets?
None of this is to denigrate the work of independent bloggers everywhere - like me. Many of us spend a lot of time doing our best to either improve local news coverage, to talk about our ideas for how to make our ‘hoods more walkable and bikable, to get an ego boost and land a job in ‘the movement’ (me!), or for whatever. We all have our own reasons, but rarely does it ever include monetary compensation. Can we find a way to harness all this energy to make truly big leaps in policy which benefit us all? Can we make this blogging thing sustainable? Can we do it on our own? Can we help Streetsblog do it? Can we help BikePortland.org do it? BikePortland.org, by the way, may be reaching sustainability, I suspect.
My personal view is that separated, we have a very limited capacity to change things. Together, we have a real chance. The whole is worth way more than the sum of its parts. ‘Together’ means organizing - reaching out to one another - working together - it’s a massive pain in the ass - and it has to happen. Institutions are important. That’s what Streetsblog (and affiliated properties) has become. That’s what BikePortland.org has become. They’re the only two blogs/networks I can think of that can really move policy. The people that run them have backgrounds in the news/reporting industry. The integrity and consistency and professionalism of those blogs are not happy accidents.
Two blogs in Austin have started working together. ATXBS provides ‘cultural’ event listings to the more mainstream Austin bike blog, AustinBikeBlog.org. I’m sure there is lots of this type of thing going on all over the place. Finding ways to reward everyone for their respective efforts can be difficult in the bike- and livable streets-blogging world — zero divided by two or more is still zero. Yet people are finding ways to organize - to work together - to bring together the vulnerable (bikers and walkers and just about everyone who is not rich) and help direct their attention upwards at the people in power, not down at the even-more vulnerable.
It’s something I’d like to see happen.
…Talk about timing — it seems the Streetsblog Network may have just officially launched (notified via email). The Network has been something I’ve been meaning to cover for a while now. Up until now it’s been more of this back-page, slowly-incubating-type thing, and I’m not sure any of us ‘member blogs’ really knew what it might become. It was always available via the main links right on the Streetsblog home page, but you either had to find it by accident (like me) or you had to know where to look. I guess today we have a bit more of an idea of what it might be all about:
Welcome to Streetsblog Network, a national blog network focused on sustainable transport, smart growth and livable streets issues. We bring together more than 100 blogs from all regions of the United States (and beyond) and highlight the best work they are doing. Think of it as one-stop shopping for transportation policy goodness.
Every member of the network is someone who blogs from a local perspective. We’re writing about different cities, but we’re talking to similar audiences and working towards similar goals. Together, we reach a weekly national readership that must number well into the hundreds of thousands.
It’s not quite a Streetsblog in every town, or a ‘BikePortland.org for every city and town that wants one’, but I guess it does actually create some type of real ‘network’-type thing - which, for starters, would mean some promotion for your blog if you write something good or interesting or whatever. So that’s good. As more and more of bike- and transportation- and livable streets-related blogs come online, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of what’s important. Hopefully the Streetsblog Network will all help us do that. For instance, watching a 20-second clip of Critical Mass in San Francisco is not important, but knowing that Dallas has a maniac running its bike program is important.
I still like the idea of Streetsblog or BikePortland.org or whoever becoming a full-on publishing powerhouse. This could be a step in the right direction.
Props to Streetsblog. The Network site looks good. More cooperation and organizing is always a good thing.
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