May marks the five-year anniversary of this blog, and I've had some time to think about where this blog is going as much as I have about where I'm going(career-wise.)
This blog is now going on extended--and perhaps permanent--hiatus. Part of this decision has to do with the simple fact that, after five years, this blog feels played out. Five years is a long time in blog years, and I've pretty much said all that I've want to say using this blog. More importantly, I've found a better venue for the stories I have been wanting to write and that I am capable of writing.....
Currently, I am working on several articles, including two 3-article series, for Poynter.org's E-Media Tidbits column. I've been a contributor to this column since 2006 and have watched it evolve beyond a blog into a full-fledged column on important changes in the newspaper industry and journalism landscape that are brought on due to the rapidly changing environment of the Internet. I am currently writing on "content mills" as well as on services that work with newspapers on copyright issues, and more. I have the freedom, flexibility, and editorial oversight at Poynter that I've wanted for a long time. I'm happy to be there and more than happy that Poynter likes and encourages my work.
I'm also looking to do more freelance writing. Granted, this is hardly the time to start a freelance career--what with all the lay-offs. But I have a strategy, and I'm more interested in getting some sort of pay for what I write than I am for writing stuff just for the heck of it.
Writing isn't the solution to the career dilemma though. There are far more opportunities in social media nowadays than there were when I started this blog. There are more community development positions, more director of social media positions--the space is "hot" at the moment I am told. So, why not take all that I've done--all the projects, all the teaching, all the speaking--and bring that to a place that will value my expertise.
As for blogging in general, I may be starting up at other sites--but blogging isn't necessarily what it used to be. The blogosphere is a crowded landscape now, with highly organized and well-financed media and business blogs crowding out the voices of people. Which is kind of sad, actually. The blogosphere was a fun place way back when, and I think I miss some of the collegiality that used to exist here--even though I was only a small part of it.
So, it is fondly, sadly, happily, that the Constant Observer bids a fond farewell to the blogosphere as I once knew it, as it is becoming...and as I am becoming something more than just a bigmouth in blogosphere.
P.S.: I've started a Posterous site on my passion for old movies: Cinema Omnibus I was going to keep "professional" kind of posterous, but I figured that it was time to have some fun again with blogging. And if I wanted to write seriously, I could write for someone else's blog. So, that's the upshot of all of this. Blogging, for me, isn't necessarily a profession, unless I'm getting paid to do it. And if I'm not getting paid for it, I'm going to write about what I want to write about. Which, apparently, is old movies....
