Ex-Bakersfield Californian VP reveals N.L. Belardes Paperback Writer blog as the most important blog in Bakersfield - By N.L Belardes
Who would ever think the Bakersfield Californian would admit the importance of nlbelardes.com and its Paperback Writer blog toward Bakersfield’s developing online blog culture?
They didn’t.
It took an ex-V.P. in Howard Owens to declare Paperback Writer as “the center of the blogging universe in Kern County” and “the most important blog in Bako right now.” Makes you wonder why Howard Owens couldn’t admit the importance of a local grassroots blogger in the shadows of a media goliath before. There was the day he chomped on a greasy burger in a local pizza punk venue while having lunch with me. It was a historic day of dueling conversation journalism (read more).
If Owens was reading my blog since his Ventura days, makes you wonder what kinds of conversations the Californian has had about old nlbelardes.com and Paperback Writer while hidden behind brick walls, shrouded in the ghostly confines of the local newspaper and its unwritten stories.
Sometimes the unwritten stories are the most interesting.
They didn’t.
It took an ex-V.P. in Howard Owens to declare Paperback Writer as “the center of the blogging universe in Kern County” and “the most important blog in Bako right now.” Makes you wonder why Howard Owens couldn’t admit the importance of a local grassroots blogger in the shadows of a media goliath before. There was the day he chomped on a greasy burger in a local pizza punk venue while having lunch with me. It was a historic day of dueling conversation journalism (read more).
If Owens was reading my blog since his Ventura days, makes you wonder what kinds of conversations the Californian has had about old nlbelardes.com and Paperback Writer while hidden behind brick walls, shrouded in the ghostly confines of the local newspaper and its unwritten stories.
Sometimes the unwritten stories are the most interesting.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Friday, July 14, 2006.
You can leave your response.
The Californian's afraid of you NL...
I don't agree with that statement, Matildakay. The Californian is a business seeking to corner the Central Valley online realm. Sure, they want to serve the community. But they want to be #1 in the search engines, which means we compete. So they strategize and withhold from revealing what many know is true: the importance of the N.L. Belardes Paperback writer blog and nlbelardes.com.
It's the strategies that are hidden, though loosely veiled.
And that's OK. They're a business.
Think about it. If they had revealed my blog was so important, that would make my site newsworthy. Then that would attract more attention to my blog, and would allow Paperback Writer to be even further entrenched. And they don't want to do that, because there is an aire of conquering the local Internet markets in all of this with a storm of blog floods...
So they suppress such news...
Maybe that's just for readers to decide.
N.L., couldn't or wouldn't?
Why would I feed your ego with such a statement when I was in the midst of crafting my own digital strategy?
I certainly wouldn't want to draw any more attention to you than I had, too.
Now, it doesn't really matter.
And besides, I'm writing my blog for a national audience of media professionals (not that many read it). The point of my post, or at least that part of it, was that newspapers need to pay attention to local bloggers and figure out who the most popular local bloggers are (popular to other local readers).
There's a term in marketing that I used: influentials.
My sense is, you're a local influential, and the others who read and comment on your blog are influentials. Newspapers need to do a better job of appealing to influentials, especially young influentials. Newspapers should be making friends with the local digerati.
And there is little doubt, you're the closest thing to a local Instapundit there is. You connect other bloggers by linking to them and having them come here to comment on your posts. As near as I can tell, every local blogger who cares about what happens locally (as opposed to people who live in town but focus nationally, and I can't find many of those), reads your blog.
That's not to say you're the biggest thing in local media. You've got a long, long, long, long way to go before you're competing with even the lowest rated radio station. But in the digital world, size almost doesn't matter. It's the who as much if not more than the how many.
Even your enemies read you (personally, I wouldn't want enemies, but to each his own). That says something about your influence.
I wouldn't read too much into my former position at TBC. This is just me talking -- a guy, just a guy, who has been involved in local media all his life, and digital media for more than a decade, and blogs for four or five years. I just have opinions. They are no reflection on any actual, imagined, official, unofficial, hidden, open, etc. thinking at TBC. My opinions have nothing to do with TBC. It's just me and my opinion.
howardowens.com
Another thought ... and again, this is JUST ME, just a guy, no TBC reflection at all ...
but I love this media theory stuff ...
It's quite possible that the key influentials don't even read local blogs. They're all over on MySpace.
How do newspapers reach those people?
Where are the key local influentials and how to MSM companies appeal to them? That is the most vexing question facing our industry right now.
howardowens.com
DAMN HOWARD!......I'm almost afraid to know what you REALLY think!!!!!! :D
Oh good. This is all we need. More fuel for your ego machine. :p
Aw, Rob. Let me show you the ego machine. You ever had one of your songs lampooned into something about feasting fat guys? Lords: Part One has just dropped into the vat of infamy.
Howard, you better be careful. You might get lampooned for just being brave enough to comment on this site. What would they say about you and your yellow pony?
What's a radio station? Oh! You mean those old time stations that play commercials? Do they have those anymore? I read Paperback writer because Nick is entertaining, period. I'm not trying to be mean......but my first time visiting Howards Owens site, I can totally tell he's been in media for years! It really really shows. You can see all the years of experience Howard has right when you see the headline of his page. Very professional and very corporate. No thanks. I'll pick up an LA Times and get all the great coupons and my news in a corporate fashion. The way I'm reading this is Howard is the famous writer VP and Nick is the smalltown blogger? Sorry, but I know a crap load of people in town and I've never heard of you until Nick started writing about you. Ouch.
Lards of Bakersfield. That is fantastic! You haven't really hit fame until someone starts making fun of your work.
Kenny, I never heard of you until I read your comment.
And that proves what exactly?
BTW: Where's your blog? The one you wrote all the code for yourself? That's the DYI way, isn't it?
-- howardowens.com
I'm not one to defend Howard Owens... he's trivialized me a few too many times... but OK... here goes... I'll say it really fast.
hissiteisprettygood.
...and informative--though it gets into a lot of journalistic theory that many readers will never even know exists because all they care about is reading the news to see who killed who.
But for media strategists. It's a great conduit of info.
Howard, I'm not a blogger, just a reader. You not knowing who I am proves that the Californian in the past and in the present still has it's head way far up it's ass(TBC has never learned how to cover local entertainment). It also shows that you really don't read ALL of this blog because my name and pictures are peppered all through it. It's cool, I just glance at yours too. I'm not hating you, it's just paperback writer is very important to our local music and art scene and I didn't care for your rant on marketing and media knowledge and your boasting, that's all. I hope we can still be best friends! ; )
leave a response