

The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine) - jlees
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-death-of-the-blog-post/

======
SlyShy
Translation into SmashingMagazine title: Top 3 Blogazines You Should Be
Checking Out!

In seriousness though, those people they mentioned don't _just_ have
interesting designs with each article--they also have interesting content.
Dressing up a "Top 10 WordPress Plugin" post in a special skin isn't going to
make it any less shallow. However, maybe designing a skin for an article
forces people to think more about what they are writing. After all, it'd be a
waste not to put effort into the content if so much effort is being put into
the design. I really just want more interesting content.

------
RyanMcGreal
This is a great idea _if_ you're a designer and know what you're doing. I
shudder at the thought of how appalling my personal website would look - think
geocities at its worst! - if I tried this.

Conventions may be boring, but they allow us design duffers to focus on the
content itself.

~~~
tjpick
to be fair, if you aren't good at design then your "same design on every page"
design probably isn't very good either.

I really like the way they are presenting information -- there really is a
problem on the web of nav-on-the-top-and-left, ads-on-the-right, boring
presentation and it's good to see someone trying other things. Having said
that, I don't think they got it quite right wrt the scrolling/page-down flow.
I'd like to see something like this that was a bit more screen orientated.
Their example is more like something I like to see on a tall poster and
doesn't fit screen browsing quite right. I don't know what the answer looks
like though.

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hegemonicon
If I'm reading something, I don't want to be distracted by the fancy text
layout and bright shiny colors. I just want clearly presented text with a
minimum of complexity.

In rare cases special formatting can enhance the effect or help interpret
something written, but in most cases it adds nothing except clutter. I found
this article nearly unreadable because of the "interesting" and "exciting" way
they presented it.

~~~
allenp
I thought this article wasn't well done, but they do link to some examples
that are better. This is one:

<http://gregorywood.co.uk/journal/top-5-spielberg-films>

I really think consuming that article is more satisfying than yet another top
10 list with a hastily pasted thumbnail of the movie art.

------
jlees
I actually really like the blogazine concept, but it's very unlikely for me to
have the time and the effort to put into creating a unique, story-led layout
for a post. On the other hand, doing it for content that really deserves it
would certainly stand out. Even at the base level the 'blogazine' approach of
using illustrations alongside text is something that blogs are forgetting how
to do.

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mkinsella
This article fails to mention one of the best magazines on the market: The
Economist. It is always the same: simple title, one picture, and lots of
columized text.

In addition, they also forget the newspapers. They are always identical from
day-to-day. Just because it might be easier to style a "Top X" list doesn't
mean it still isn't a useless "Top X" list.

~~~
anigbrowl
Absolutely. I posted a rant recently on how _Scientific American_ lost me as a
subscriber (and an evangelist) when they switched away from the 'journal'
format, going so far as to increase the size of the body text to put out the
same number of pages with about 10% less content.

I like and admire good graphic design. But not as much as I like and admire
good writing. Does anyone think sites like Metafilter or HN would benefit from
an orgy of visual style?

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alabut
Man, what is with all the snark around here lately? This thing is gorgeous and
there's nothing wrong with that. When Dustin or JSM does it, it gets upvotes
up the wazoo. It's even praising those authors and acknowledging prior art.

------
ikhare
Ever since I read Jason Santa Maria's article on his "rethinking"
(<http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/a-new-day/>) I've been thinking about
doing something similar with my personal site, where the frequency of posts
has reduced over time.

I agree with the comments here that the smashing article went overboard; what
particularly annoyed me was the use of different colored words for emphasis
instead of bold or italic. I kept thinking those were links and obsessively
moused over them to check. In their overzealous sale of the idea I think they
definitely missed the mark about how design should work with the content. This
is exactly what Jason Santa Maria points out in his post.

He specifically mentions that he may not always have time or the inclination
or possibly even a need to do something special for each post. If that's the
case he has a great default template for such articles. I highly recommend
reading Jason's original article of a more sane and reasonable version of the
idea.

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cruise02
...said the blogazine.

~~~
rudd
It's worth noting that Smashing Magazine is not normally a full-on blogazine;
only this particular article was like this. Their previous post was much more
in the format of a normal blog:
[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/18/designing-css-
but...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/18/designing-css-buttons-
techniques-and-resources/)

~~~
cruise02
They have "magazine" right in their name.

~~~
sjs382
You seem to have missed the point of the article and instead fixated on the
"azine" part. Unfortunate.

~~~
cruise02
How is that unfortunate? Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the
next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this
article? Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any
insight of your own?

~~~
sjs382
> How is that unfortunate?

Because your comments may dissuade people from reading the article who may
otherwise enjoy it.

> Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering
> blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article?

No.

> Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of
> your own?

No.

~~~
cruise02
My initial comment was only intended to remind people that it was in fact a
blogazine that was declaring the death of blogs and the rise of blogazines. I
don't mean to dissuade anyone from actually reading the article for
themselves, we just need to be aware of whose opinions we're listening to.

If you're going to criticize someone for "missing the point" you should at a
minimum explain what it is they don't get, that way you demonstrate that it is
not you who has missed the point

~~~
sjs382
smashingmagazine.com is NOT a "blogazine" as defined by the article. This one
post is the exception.

~~~
cruise02
So smashingmagazine.com, the blog/magazine, is not a "blogazine" as defined
by...them? Thanks for your insight.

~~~
sjs382
Correct.

------
IncidentalEcon
I get my blog content via RSS. All that fancy formatting and layout never
reaches my eyes. That plus consideration of the average half-life of a blog
post makes additional effort...well...kind of pointless. (Unless the point is
to make art, which is different.)

------
mattlanger
Great survey.

Their question as to whether blogging is "too easy" really resonates with me:
I began prototyping a CMS a while back on the premise that Blogging Should Be
Harder (a reaction of sorts, I guess, to services like Posterous and Tumblr
[full disclosure: I am a very happy user of the latter]). And what I found is
that if it's hard to design a "blogazine"--manually setting type and choosing
colors for each individual post--it's just as challenging to build an
"anything goes" CMS.

I still think it's a great idea. There might only be a handful of people out
there who would use it, but those that did would likely be producing really
top-notch content.

~~~
unalone
Hey, it's Langer! I didn't know you were an HNer.

What's the difference between your theoretical CMS and a WYSIWYG HTML editor?
Something like Weebly or Google Sites? I'd think they already cover the
"custom HTML" tactic pretty well. Beyond that the only thing you could
possibly offer is custom graphic design, right? Or were you thinking pre-build
templates in certain styles, the way iWeb offers for web design?

~~~
mattlanger
Hey!

Well the difficulty really arises when you want to go a step beyond full HTML
control and allow for JS and AJAX (think pagination with really artful page
transitions). How do you allow users complete control without turning your
service into a cesspool of XSS attacks?

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foulmouthboy
I'm surprised that people would be so dismissive of this. Good design should
obviously result in something usable, but there's nothing wrong with
presenting it in such a way so as to take advantage of the medium.

The best way to present information is not always text on plain background.
This should be obvious for anybody who has had to visualize data to make it
understandable. The blogazine idea carries data visualization forward from
quantitative to something more qualitative.

~~~
pavs
I don't think people are being dismissive of the concept of cool visualization
but the idea that it will replace typical blogpost (The death of blogpost). I
can consume this once in a while - but if they this every single post or
frequently I will be quite turned off to read the content.

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davi
_If all you have is text, text, text, then people will be less likely to read
it. Put a little effort into styling the content, and your post will become
much more readable._

Pah. Text is good for people who can think about what they're reading rather
than what they're seeing. They are my audience (such as it is).

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pavs
This is why some of us use bookmarklets like readability
<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/> to get rid of the
visualization crap so that we can concentrate on the things that matters most:
Content

~~~
jamesbritt
Funny thing is that when I went to read the posted article, I realized I did
not have that bookmarklet on the particular browser I was using and
immediately went to get it.

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jsm386
On that note, check the redesigned Engadget...not quite a 'magazine,' but
edging in that direction...<http://www.engadget.com/> (not in the sense that
every post is designed differently, but in the way content is highlighted)

~~~
aik
Yeah it's nice looking and pragmatic. The quick stats on the right are useful
and a great visualization.

------
edw519
_These guys aren’t using standard WordPress themes or cutting corners to make
their lives easier. Rather, they are challenging themselves and producing some
fantastic content._

appearance != content

~~~
allenp
Why not? What _is_ content? Is it possible for the appearance to "mingle" with
the content in a way that enhances or creates greater content? At that point
is the appearance part of the content? Or is it more like a "content additive"
?

~~~
unalone
In this case, content is material that I the consumer am interested in. I'm
potentially interested in writing. I'm less interested in design. I don't read
blogs to look at the design, I read blogs to read blogs. So if you're capable
of creating logical, readable designs time and time again, go for it.

But that's not happening. This article was not very readable: It broke itself
up into fractious chunks, highlighted words in the middle of normal sentences,
and generally jizzed.

I love that it brings up normal magazines and says they'd be boring if they
looked the same. Newsflash: Normal magazines _do_ look boring. When I read an
editorial, it looks the same week after week. When I read articles, sure,
there're big quotes and pictures and the text is _laid out_ differently, but
the writing itself sticks to the same font/size consistently. That's what
makes it readable.

The problem with the blogazine is that most blog posts don't have enough
content for what they're dealing with. A 10-page magazine article with a
hundred potential photos can use a layout. A page-long article that's
blogazined is fluffing up without providing shit. People who're so easily
wooed by designers that they still ooh and aah at big fonts, they eat it up,
but readers who want a no-bullshit presentation are turned away.

~~~
allenp
Thanks for your detailed response. I agree that smashing did a piss-poor job
in presenting this stuff - but I think they linked to some examples that do it
really well. You are 100% spot-on with the font size/color/weight stuff.

I think the idea with some of the posts is that it allows for random access
rather than linear - and I think there is some value in exploring a page to
see what it contains for some readers. Quality is still probably the most
important aspect as you said.

------
billpg
My eyes! My eyes!

------
anonjon
Don't you normally have one person who writes the article and (at least)
another person who does the layout and photography for the article in a normal
magazine?

I'm not saying that this is not a great idea for a new content type, but it
seems to me that the intersection of people who are good at web design and
people who are good at writing (about things that aren't web design) is
probably a fairly small set (in comparison to the set of people who are good
at writing).

You also have to notice that the signal to noise ratio in a magazine (feels to
me) much higher in a traditional print medium than it is in a magazine. The
text gets stretched out over a much larger area (although the trade off is
worth it for magazines where the pictures help to tell the story).

A lot of the time, the design is there in order to cover up the apparent lack
of information in the magazine. Have you ever read Cosmo? It is mostly full-
page advertisements.

Although that does bring up the fact that you could monetize a blogazine
really easily by including full-page advertisements and making it so you have
to scroll through it. Imagine one of those really pretty magazine-style photo-
adds on a blogazine, I would imagine that the click through rate would be
pretty good, and you could charge just for showing the add.

Appearance and textual content meet somewhere (otherwise we would all be using
HTML 1.1 or whatever), but I doubt we will be seeing full-blown blogazines go
mainstream any time soon simply because of the technical skill involved (and
how bad it will go if you don't pull it off properly).

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sleepingbot
Blah blah. Chewing on names. Pure onanism.

