I ramble a little here, but bear with me.
Recently, I said the Underground wasn’t going to finish 2009 the same way it began it. That’s about to become true.
The Original Trout Underground Manifestor header, circa 2005
Interest in advertising on the Trout Underground is growing (slowly), and suddenly, we’re important enough that a couple manufacturers want to shower me with gear to review (one of them offered to let me keep the swag).
It seems the Undergrounders love gear reviews, but here’s the rub: if a reviewer knows in advance he’s keeping the gear he’s reviewing, then a cynic might suggest he’s receiving a form of payment for the review.
The advertising angle is pretty much the same; advertisers have dollars-and-cents leverage when they’re not happy with editorial content, and some are notoriously willing to use it.
My journalism training suggests compensated reviews represent a sizable conflict of interest, and it’s one reason why you might question the unbiased nature of those high-end destination reviews when a lodge paid the writer to be there.
Can you trust me to honestly review a piece of gear when the gear itself becomes a payoff – a form of blogola? Can you trust me to say what I think knowing an advertiser might object?
I think you can, but it’s a question my readers have the right to ask.
I will say this: perceived conflict of interest has long been one of journalism’s slipperier slopes, and without the trust I’ve built among my readers, the Underground is little more than 1700+ posts of search engine content.
Why is all this an issue?
The Underground Gets Real
Because while the Trout Underground’s big fun – and yes, I believe it fills a niche mainstream fly fishing media doesn’t – it’s also the following: A hell of a lot of work.
Writing is my day job, and investing vast expanses of time here absent any real return isn’t fiscally sane – especially when the economy is face planting and hordes of part time amateur writers are turning the professional writing world into a race to the low bid.
An Early Trout Underground Header Image
The L&T’s totally cool about the amount of time I waste spend here, but we both know I’d generate a lot better return if I invested it in my business, or [gasp] wrote articles for print magazines.
Which – in the case of the Underground – seemingly leaves me with two choices.
- Let the Underground float downstream, belly up in the current
- Find a way to make a few guilt-free dollars off the site – but do so transparently
What’s going to happen? I’m not sure, but Singlebarbed and I are in the process of creating our Advertising/Gear Whore policy, the genesis of which you’ll find after I’ve made some long-winded observations about…
The Underground’s Take on the Future of Fly Fishing Media
Keith at Singlebarbed and I have always been clear with each other why we write our blogs; we’re happy writing and publishing the stuff the magazines aren’t publishing.
That’s not necessarily a shot at the print folks; the Internet is a different animal, though fly fishing’s media would do well to heed the lessons of newspapers, which are in a free fall (The Rocky Mountains News ceased publishing today, and even the SF Chronicle is threatening to close)
Recently, Phil Monahan lost his job at the helm of American Angler because the magazine owner’s newspaper operations sucked the life out of the organization.
Monahan and I had our disagreements online, but he’s a talented editor who somehow grew American Angler’s reader base in a stagnant market. Simply put, he deserved better than he seemingly got.
More Underground Header goodness
It also seems Underground Fave fly fishing writer Dave Hughes recently left Amato Publishing due to budget issues, and you don’t have to look to closely to see the cracks widening at a few other publications.
And yes, because I write a blog, you’re expecting me to tell you that blogs are the the future of fly fishing online, and no others need apply?
Not so much.
Blogs as Traffic Magnets?
In truth, I believe the standalone, original-content blog format is something of a dead end – at least in terms of viable fly fishing media properties.
More than a year ago, I predicted blogs – at least those with hopes of generating enough revenue to make them worth writing – might have to serve a larger master.
One obvious niche is the role of traffic magnet to a larger entity. In this context, you could consider bloggers the online equivalent to columnists at a newspaper, whose job it is to keep readers coming back.
This one came a little later; I'm not clear on the date.
And yes, you might notice the new, high-profile online magazines have sprouted blogs. That seems like a necessary survival tactic when you’re releasing an online magazine every couple months (an eternity in Internet time).
Without something to keep readers engaged, online magazines are forced to re-acquire a sizable chunk of their readership every issue. That’s not good.
Still, the blogs mentioned really have yet to fill the “columnist” role, and the online sites associated with fly fishing’s magazines are similarly devoid of “anchor” blogs (with Field & Stream being a surprising exception).
One thing is clear; fly fishing blogs are finally gaining ground in the fly fishing industry: MidCurrent’s Marshal Cutchin and I found ourselves on the cover of Orvis’ fly fishing catalog.
The Trout Underground’s stand on the McCloud & Nestle led to an appearance on TU’s On the Rise show, and more media folks have been popping their heads into my virtual online window.
And yes, the number of commercial enterprises looking for free access to my readership has grown by an order of magnitude over the last few months (and illustrated why many of fly fishing’s small businesses could stand to read a book on pitching story ideas).
Simply put, the online revolution is happening even in the quiet backwater that is fly fishing.
The Underground’s Ad/Gear Whore Policy
Barring the sudden appearance of a wealthy patron (hear me, trustfunders?), advertising is now a reality for the Underground. Problem is, standard online banner ads aren’t always effective – especially over long ad runs.
Rather than trap advertisers within the confines of a 160 x 600 pixel banner ad, I’m adding “ad pages” to the Underground’s mix. To reach the growing number of folks who read my content via RSS and email feeds (they may never physically visit the site), I’ll be creating dedicated ad posts, essentially mimicking the pages in magazines that are dedicated to ads.
Clearly marked ‘Advertising’ (in multiple ways), these ad posts offer an advertiser a little more elbow room – and a chance to deliver “content” they couldn’t otherwise deliver.
Frankly, it makes a hell of a lot of sense for everyone involved, and rest assured, the advertising posts will remain separate from the editorial posts you’re (presumably) here to read and comment on.
If online advertising can’t be made to to work for everyone involved (not just in fly fishing, but across the Internet), then it’s entirely possible – as some have predicted – the Internet will have presided over the death of intellectual property.
With a series of unpretty options as my alternative, I believe this is one way to make viable online advertising a reality.
As for gear reviews, I promise to be entirely transparent about the disposition of the stuff I receive. Singlebarbed and I have agreed to do something good and useful with the first pile of gear coming to us (like raffle it and donate the proceeds to a worthy cause).
If we keep something, we’ll “pay” for it somehow (donating the media price equivalent somewhere). More on this come.
Finally, The Underground e-Newsletter
Also, the Underground’s firing up an e-newsletter service. It’s yet to be named, but the e-newsletter should offer:
- Photos, shorter works, snark and other information not available on the blog
- A chance for me to fire off news alerts about breaking stories/legislation/actionable items
- Access to some of the older Underground pieces that deserve a second showing
If you’re a regular Undergrounder, then by all means, sign up (I’ll have a signup button in the sidebar soon).
I see this is yet another step in the big experiment that began when I began writing the Trout Underground in November, 2005.
The world is shifting beneath our feet – and some days it feels like it’s spinning faster than it did ten years ago – and like everyone, I’m trying to make sense of it.
As always, thanks for visiting, reading, and commenting on the Underground.
It’s been a hoot, and it’s about to get even more interesting.
See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
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