Oshkosh Blogs RIP

I have been mulling this over for about a month now, but I believe that it is now clear that the Oshkosh Northwestern has killed the Oshkosh Blogs.

History

Before 2005, the Oshkosh Northwestern had an absolutely horrible web presence. It didn't even have its own domain name, using a branch of some "Wisinfo" URL. Online it found itself being challenged by a handful of "cutting edge" local websites, including sites like eyeonoshkosh.com and fullofbologna.com, which enabled the public to speak freely and vent on any number of local issues, to sites like tonypalmeri.com and ABVarmytimes, which provided a more static news alternative. When Miles McGuire started the Oshblog and Oshkosh News websites with the Public Library, the Northwestern really started to feel the heat. The Oshblog allowed the public to submit the news, and the website Oshkosh News began to push the envelope in terms of coverage of local political campaigns, a direct threat to the Oshkosh Northwestern's turf. Oshkoshnews.org, in partnership with the Oshkosh Public Library, began to provide a new angle to politics in their coverage of the Common Council race in Spring 2006, and the 54th Assembly District race in Fall 2006. They experimented with video interviews, online debates & forums, and tools that allowed the voters to directly interact with the candidates. Was the Oshkosh Northwestern threatened - you betcha.

Oshkoshnews.org had another affect on Oshkosh Online Culture - it set up RSS Feeds to a number of local blogs, which resulted in a rise of Local Blog Culture in Oshkosh. Beginning in 2006, blogs began popping up left and right in Oshkosh. With Blogger, anyone could create a blog. Michelle Monte's school board campaigns were launched from her blog, and Kent Monte's campaigns for Common Council began as blogs. Tony Palmeri and Cheryl Hentz both expanded their web presence from websites to blogs. My own site, babblemur.com, which began as a static website in 2005 migrated to blog in 2005 and shifted from blogger to the current site in 2006. Elected officials began blogging - including Mike Norton & Bryan Bain, and all were linked to easily from the Grand-father Oshkoshnews.org along with Gary, Jef Hall, and others like the Polly Blog. Oshkosh blogs cross linked to each other, referred to posts on other sites, and dialogs carried over from one site to another.

Blogs were all over the Spring 2007 Common Council race. This site was blatantly promoting Tony Palmeri's campaign. Theresa Theil and Michelle Monte's sites were online battlefields regarding the School Board race. But something started to change. The Oshkosh Northwestern began to make their move. They began with some blogs - including the ill-fated "Everyday Editor" blog by Stew Rieckman. Blogs weren't going to work. So they stepped it up and created the "OshKonversation" forum, and the general northwestern.com forum which allowed users to create accounts and comment on news stories, editorials, local issues and anything else they could come up with. While slow to start, once online users got over sacrificing their anonymity the Oshkosh Northwestern Forums took off.

The Oshkosh Northwestern Forums turned out to have several significant advantages over the blogs. For one, you could comment on any article published in the paper, or at least its online version. Secondly, people comment online because they want their comments to be read, and the Northwestern Forums not only had an automatic larger viewership than blogs, they even took the more colorful comments and printed them in the paper. The Northwestern Forums, by the time 2008 rolled around, has become THE PLACE to go to impact opinion, debate local issues, and most of all find viewers to read what you have to say. And this, in my opinion, is what killed the Local Blogs.

However, while the Oshkosh Northwestern has found a way to draw online readership and engage Oshkosh residents in debate and dialog online, this only challenges one aspect of what made blogs and websites successful in the first place - user engagement. The second aspect is something that the Northwestern can never fill - an alternative perspective to the Oshkosh Northwestern itself.

The Oshkosh Blogs and Websites did more than just involve users in the discussion. They provided an alternative perspective to Local News. They challenged what the Northwestern wrote, and asked questions that the Northwestern didn't seem willing to ask. They brought attention to street level news and events that the Northwestern, with its scaled back press corps, didn't seem to cover. That role - an alternative perspective - is still sorely needed. However, the Oshkosh Blogs are loosing the battle for viewership and involvement and are showing serious signs of fatigue.

Lets take a look at Oshkosh Blogs of late.

The BIG FIVE:

• Oshkoshnews.org, the hub of Oshkosh Blogs, is in the midst of a multi-month redesign that is not showing signs of change yet. The bulk of the site is still RSS feeds to blogs that are being rarely updated themselves. The companion Oshblog has a post up today - the first one in over 29 days.


• Eye on Oshkosh had five posts in February. The companion site is being updated but its bulletin boards have been directly challenged by the ONW Forums.


• Tonypalmeri.com has become more static and less edgy as Tony has less time due to his Common Councilor duties, and since he has moved his commentary (which is what has always drawn people to Tony's site) more to his blog, Talk to Tony.


• Fullofbologna.com appears to be still going strong, although it has always seemed to have its own niche audience immune to blogs or the ONW.


• Babblemur.com has lost a lot of steam. What was once a site pushing alternative local issues, it has struggled to stay current, particularly after the site owner had a second child. The site's Green Party bent hasn't helped with local traffic, but it still maintains a consistent 200 hits per day average.

School Board Sites

• Michelle Monte - Michelle came out as the top vote getter on Feb 19 in her third attempt at a seat on the Oshkosh School Board. Her blog has always been her spokes-piece, and this year is no different. Frequent comments and anonymous capabilities keep Michelle's blog lively despite an average one post per week.


• Theresa Thiel - Theresa's blog arose from her 2007 campaign for School Board, and running against Michelle Monte, her blog directly challenged Monte and offered an additional perspective to school board issues. Thiel's blog only sees a handful of posts each month but plenty of comments.

The Best and the Rest:

• The Chief of Oshkosh posts prolifically but in the last week has been slacking off. Tabbed as "Oshkosh's best blogger" and "Best new Oshkosh Blog" in 2007, The Chief's trademark "post often" policy has fallen by the wayside the last few weeks. Oshkosh waits expectantly for more posts by the anonymous Chief of Oshkosh who is probably just taking a break.


• 53 to 56 has a lot of potential to focus news and information on the 53rd, 54th, 55th, and 56th Assembly Districts (Winnebago County) which have elections coming up this year. The site has not been updated regularly lately but hopefully that will change with election season.


• Jef Hall is a consistent blogger for years. I hope he expands his County Board coverage to go with his Democratic Party news.


• Talk to Tony - Tony is a busier man, but still consistently blogs and comments about relevant news impacting the city.


• Miles 2 Go - Miles McGuire maintains his own blog, which became a high traffic site over the River Mills Sidewalk stories. Miles2go offers unique perspectives on local media, including blog culture. Averaging 3 posts a month.


• Lake Winneblogo - An anonymous university faculty member blog, with topic matter usually reserved for UW Oshkosh issues and stories related to academia and student engagement. Tends to drop off when school is out, but what do you expect.

There are too many others to list them all here, but generally the frequency of blog postings, and the volume of comments on local blogs, both seem to be taking a nose dive. It is a descending spiral as well, because as posts become more infrequent, people check blogs less often, which decreases traffic and bloggers loose interest.

Main Street Oshkosh

It was in this context of the decline of local blogs that a small group started up the Main Street Oshkosh blog. The goal was to try to fill that need for an alternative perspective to local issues from that of the Northwestern, and to also offer some "news from the street". We invited a number of local bloggers and other people to participate, but with mixed reaction.

But the Northwestern out maneuvered Main Street Oshkosh at every turn. We wanted a whole section on Restaurant reviews, and then the Northwestern started a Forum on restaurant reviews. We wanted to profile locally owned businesses downtown, and then the Northwestern started to profile the exact same businesses we were talking to. Everything we tried to do, the Northwestern started to do. What could we do to draw readership and compete with the Northwestern's Forums - what could we say that the ONW didn't either say or let others say.

So posting declined, updates dropped off, and myself with a new child and JC going back to school left poor Main Street without any drivers.

What's Next

While it is easy to concede that the Northwestern Forums have provided the online public a virtual soap box and readership to read the rants, there still remains a need for an alternative media perspective in Oshkosh. Whether blogs will rise again I don't know, but there needs to be something, and there needs to be leaders to lead the charge. Oshkosh needs Independent News.

Please - someone start something! Or join up with Main Street Oshkosh and launch an online revolution!

(crossposted at babblemur.com)