Then, it got odd…
Last week I had a small although surprising discovery. It wasn’t a trendy proof-that-PR-is-dead finding but a further blurring between ‘traditional’ media and social media. It might come as a shocker that this nugget didn’t tumble out of Web 2.0 or extensive analysis of the Windows 7 launch. Rather, it was the New York Times sports section, and an article titled “Plodders Have a Place, but Is It in a Marathon?”
The Times, which I most often read in my professional life, quoted excerpts from a conversation thread about marathons on Slowtwitch.com, a forum about endurance sports that’s frequented by my recreational alter ego. It struck me as odd that a publishing heavyweight with a Sunday circulation north of 1.4 million, was sourcing commentary from an online community of 29,000 sinewy athletes with shaved legs (both men and women), who debate for days about running shoes and the fastest bike tires. This isn’t exactly the substance of conversations taking place around the executive cafeteria.
While media’s use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms is aged news, this one gave me pause, given how ‘un-mainstream’ Slowtwitch is. But in reality, the Times simply went to where the crowd hangs out for this particular topic, even if that’s The Internets and not the more obvious running store, coffee shop or 7-11 Gatorade cooler. And in place of yesteryear’s interview, the reporter grabbed some low hanging fruit: comments posted by a user whose real name isn’t likely “Record10Carbon.” You might call it the social media version of overhearing a conversation.
Another lesson that journalists are often lurking where you wouldn’t expect, such as wedged between dialogues on compression socks and the merits of aero wheelsets. Further, it demonstrates how user-generated comments are increasingly influential for consumers as well as media, no matter how ridiculous the subject matter might sound.
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Great post. It never ceases to amaze me how absolutely niche some blogs and forums are and the topics that they address. Long live the long tail!
Comment by Tony Obregon