There is an article in the NY Times today called
In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop . The article talks about the immense pressure bloggers (especially technology bloggers) face keeping up with a 24/7 demand for information. And cites two well-known tech bloggers who recently died.
Now the piece does focus on people who are 'blogging for dollars' rather than those of us who take advantage of the services of Finextra to offer our two cents on in the world of financial technology. But one thing about the article did strike me. It says
bloggers are facing extra pressure to produce the latest news, as well as the news which will generate the most views. Quoting from the NY Times: "Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will
bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue."Now we all know in our new world of algorithmic trading--milliseconds mean millions. But bloggers and journalists are not algorithms. They are living, breathing people.--Should milliseconds
really mean life or death for an online news item?Before my recent incarnation as a research consultant I worked as a journalist for 13 years. The pressure was always on to get a news story out before your competitors. (fair enough--the definition of news
is 'something you don't already know'). But often the need to be 'first' won out over the need to produce a story that was well written, well researched and well sourced. My question to the Financial Technology Universe is this--What attracts you to news on
a blog or on the web? Is it more important that one blog posts 'milliseconds' before another? Or are you looking for blogs that have a certain type of analysis or even depth of research?And if anyone of you advertise on online sites--which qualities are rewarded
with ad dollars?