After the New York City Blogger Summit I made a resolution to read more blogs. Here’s one that’s really fun called Modern Fabulosity. I’ve selected some excerpt from his list of ten things he learned at the summit. Read more at Modern Fabulosity.

New York Bloggers Summit, held last night at the studios of WNBC
at Rockefeller Center, featured over 130 bloggers and what seemed like
5,000 NBC employees, most of whom stood around nervously and made small
talk with all the grace of a concrete block. Theoretically, the Summit
was an opportunity to bridge understanding between "MSM" (as they
charmingly referred to themselves, like it was still 2004) and
bloggers, most of whom look like lifelong grad students. The event
taught us all, both TV folk and web folk, a few important life lessons.
To wit:

4) Give us your Content, We’ll Give You….?
The
"dialogue" began with eight different NBC executives telling us exactly
why we were there. Basically, they can’t keep up with the pace of news
in the internet age. So they’d like bloggers to email them "scoops"
(their word, not mine), and in return, they will give us "publicity"
and "traffic" and "credit" and "linklove" (again, their word, not
mine). They were deliberately vague on what "credit" meant, but we
guess that "publicity" meant links from their website, and the one word
we wanted to hear — "money" — was noticeably absent.

5) Arts?  Who cares about the arts?
As
the session began, the NBC’er who was most helpful, Erin, led an
informal survey with a show of hands. Political bloggers in the house?
A bunch. Sports bloggers? A few, and very popular. (Just like gym
class.) Gossip bloggers? Over a dozen. NYC-centric bloggers? In force.
So I waited to hear them ask for "arts bloggers" or "culture bloggers"
or "LGBT bloggers". And waited. And waited. Long story short, we were
never polled, or even thought of. Because clearly, the arts are not
news. (Later, in a discussion of Paris Hilton‘s
storage auction, "culture" blogging was used interchangeably with
"gossip" blogging. Because Paris Hilton IS culture, people, and the
sooner we all learn that, the better off we’ll be.)

7) ModFab is okay, but Gothamist is really the shiznit.
I
mentioned earlier that bloggers were allowed to ask questions. That’s
partially true; the moderator, WNBC technology reporter Sree Sreenivasan, wasn’t interested in anyone who wasn’t an A-Lister.  So while he went giddy over Anil Dash, Gothamist, Mediabistro, and Gawker,
software makers and every conceivable employee of NBC, those of us who
inhabit the B-List were left with our arms in the air, hoping we’d be
called upon. Oh, well yes, occasionally a smaller blogger was allowed a
shot at the passed microphone (our favorite: Varsity Basketweaving) but only if they were funny.

8) Bloggers don’t watch local news.  They watch Jon Stewart.
This
revelation also came by a show of hands. The NBC execs were too
petrified to ask why. Had they bothered to follow up, they would have
heard what I was dying to say: that the strength of blogging is
personality and niche subjects, two things that network news are weak
in offering…and that Stewart has in spades.

9) Bloggers are reaaaaaaaally white.
I
counted three people of color. Out of 130. Truthfully, there was more
diversity in the NBC staff. A disturbing, bothersome truth in a city
that thrives on its multicultural makeup.

10) I got a free hat.
Yes.  It even says "Blogger Summit" on it.  I may never wear it, but hey, free swag is free swag.

I
think WNBC was brave in recognizing their limitations, and smart to
reach out to bloggers in the spirit of partnership…their hearts are
in the right places. However, all joking aside — they fundamentally do
not understand the nature of the problem. Television and the internet
are getting closer together every day. To hope that bloggers will help
prop up an archaic system of delivering media — a nightly litany "of
tragedies and catastrophies, followed by the weather", as one blogger
put it — is to miss the point entirely. Today’s audience wants to
select their own content, about subjects they care about, in formats
that are useful in their lives…and to experience it on technology
that may or may not be a box in the living room. News, like life, is
changing. If they are willing to see that, I’m certain that bloggers
will answer the call.