Redoing Media – Episode 12 with Robert Wagner

by pdxfm on May 20, 2010

in Shows

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Yep, it may have been a little too ‘meta’ for some (after all, it’s clear that Betsy and Robert Wagner — the new editor of OurPDX — have spent plenty of time talking about OurPDX as of late) – but Betsy got a chance to talk publicly with Robert about just where he thinks OurPDX is heading, what he sees the site’s role in the ever-expanding Portland media scene, and just what he meant when he told Betsy he was “someone who would pretty much do anything to see it (OurPDX) continue”.

This plus Robert’s thoughts about blogging in general, his aversion to schedules or expectations (“content for the sake of content”), what happens when you invite people in to tell their stories (whether on OurPDX or pdx.fm), his desire to add a little edge and/or controversy to OurPDX to spur conversation (with a hat tip to the departing Matt Davis) and their new GTD productivity offshoot, GSD (yet another joint venture…?)

Thanks to Robert for appearing on Redoing Media, and stay tuned for details about next week’s guest! As ever, contact Betsy at betsy@redoingmedia.com with comments, feedback, show guest suggestions, or whatever else you’re moved to send via email…!

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  • http://twitter.com/StevenWalling Steven Walling

    I think Robert's points about how being a small, volunteer-based blog frees you up to focus on quality over quantity are really valuable.

    The big blogs today are basically online news magazines. In the tech world, the rankings (traffic, readership, however you want to put it) of the top blogs correspond almost exactly to number of posts produced. It is quantity over quality in that sense. It's why you've got sites like Mashable, which is ostensibly a social media blog, writing stories about celebrities.

    But since you're not paying a string of freelancers and fighting tooth and nail for advertisers, OurPDX gets to post because a writer feels like it's something important, not because we need nine posts up by 8am eastern time or our traffic takes a nose dive and our salaries don't get paid. It's the advantage of community blogging.

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