oakapple Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Capital New York has an overview of forthcoming changes to the Eater site: Another important element of Eater's integration into the Vox corporate model is its impending transition to Vox Media's proprietary content system, Chorus, developed originally for Vox Media sports site SB Nation and iterated in its technology site, The Verge, and its video game site, Polygon. The switch gets pulled later this year, and promises to revolutionize Eater's familiar format, which developed organically over time from its original, reverse-chronological "river" of story teasers, a relic of the style observed by most blogs founded at the turn of the century. I can't help but chuckle at the words "relic" and "turn of the century". It wasn't that long ago. You'd think they're still on scrolls and parchment. There's also a teaser on their "review of the future": “We wanted to change the way we look at restaurant reviews,” Kludt told Capital. “The way other publications conduct restaurant reviews is they write a review, and that's the review, for years. But as you know, restaurants are living, breathing organisms that are constantly changing. Your experience as the diner can change from any given month or any given year and Chorus gives us the tool to [publish] reviews that can evolve, be updated frequently or annotated.” If it works, this is the real shot across the New York Times' bow, which is still stuck in its anachronistic three-visits rule, which severely limits re-reviews. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony Bonner Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mongo_jones Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 a friend notes on twitter that eater has taken great pleasure in outing other "anonymous" critics. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oakapple Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now The Eater format is still valid for what it was designed to do, which is a reverse-chronological "news brief". Eater never did long-form journalism before, which is the example you linked. I mean, who's the "we" that's blogging like that now? I've seen several "post-blogging" models in recent months, but there isn't a clear winner yet, and blogs remain the dominant format for that type of content. It's certainly admirable that they're trying to improve on what they have, but blogs haven't been superseded yet. Blogs might be "relics" in 5–10 years (predicting the future is not my forté), but they aren't now. Obviously, it's great marketing if you can get readers to believe that everyone else's stuff is a "relic", but that's what it is: marketing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony Bonner Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I don't think they are calling blogs relics so much as eaters blogging format. clearly Vox's entire business model is predicated on blogs not being relics. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lex Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now That is truly fucking annoying to read. Big areas of stupid shit you have to scroll through in order to continue reading. The dumbest idea since slide show articles. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sneakeater Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Agree. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Orik Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now That is truly fucking annoying to read. Big areas of stupid shit you have to scroll through in order to continue reading. The dumbest idea since slide show articles. Thank tablets for that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
porkwah Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 it would be better to mount a tablet near my computer screen for reading that kind of thing than to read it on a computer screen. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony Bonner Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now That is truly fucking annoying to read. Big areas of stupid shit you have to scroll through in order to continue reading. The dumbest idea since slide show articles. Agree. Olds Quote Link to post Share on other sites
porkwah Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 so? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lex Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 If you look at the things Vox and SB Nation do - not to mention what the Times does with longer form stuff - the eater format really is dated. For example - this is a recent SB Nation piece one could reasonably argue it isn't an improvement - but its how we blog now That is truly fucking annoying to read. Big areas of stupid shit you have to scroll through in order to continue reading. The dumbest idea since slide show articles. Thank tablets for that. I think you're right. But even on a tablet there's still extra flicks to get to the next block of text. Those giant headers really don't add to the reading experience. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oakapple Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I think you're right. But even on a tablet there's still extra flicks to get to the next block of text. Those giant headers really don't add to the reading experience. There was probably a time when people debated whether printed books were better than scrolls and parchment. I think we can say that the issue is settled now. But it's not yet settled whether people will like this new format. That's why I found it funny to find a blog described as a "turn of the century relic." Blogs might not be perfect, but no one now would seriously dispute that they work, for a certain type of content. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony Bonner Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 They aren't saying Blogs are relics Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oakapple Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 They aren't saying Blogs are relics They are saying their blog is a relic, and even that statement seems dubious. They might eventually demonstrate that, but it's an open question. (It's not like the Chowhound user interface before Jim Leff sold out, which really was obviously outmoded in relation to its competitors.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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