Well it is prudent firstly to look at challenges to the industry that you're gloriously envisioning yourself in. Journalism. More specifically, print and online media. And its not looking good, as of course, opinion writers will go down with the ship that is your newspaper/magazine, blog or whatever. If you know anything about the world of print media, you'll know about the heralding of the death of newspapers thanks to out little friend, the Internet and sites like www.newspaperdeathwatch.com with their apocalyptic visions and all. And while it seems that the wolf is at the door of Fairfax media, statistics are actually fighting them back. According to figures aggregated by the Audit Bureau of Circulation
"Australians are buying 3.2 million Sunday newspapers a week."
“Newspapers continue to resonate with readers and advertisers. This is a $4 billion advertising medium that is a powerful way to reach a mass audience"
Now your probably thinking that two quotes from a report on the study of newspaper circulation is not enough to ease your worries about this industry. You want to take your opinion elsewhere then? But you still want your voice to be heard. So your thinking on-line then.
Print media's move to the on-line is a bit of win/loss situation for you opinionists. NO ONE goes looking for opinion that doesn't have "professional" stamped all over it. Anything otherwise is merely stumbled upon. When I say professional, I mean independent blogs that have been picked up by major newspapers and broadsheets like the more popular ones on the National Times blog page (The Vulture, Blunt Instrument, The Pitch). These blogs are labelled 'professional' because they are inside the news. They have the resources, the contacts and the second purest recreation of the event before the event itself. Your lonely little blog, which exists somewhere between this how to make a paper plane blog and my page here, has resources that aren't limited but have already been explored in their entirety. As you find yourself latch on to an issue that you can respond to with original thought, insight and some well placed criticism, and as it comes to fruition, it becomes old news. Your voice is one out of the millions struggling to gain a readership or followers. Opinion blogging is nothing new no matter how truly you believe your insight or perspective is original. Read the document in my other post. Published journalist, Andrew Leigh (who boasts over 100 published "ops" over almost all major Australian newspapers) will tell you that the opinion piece game is truly competitive, especially with newspapers where you have to compete with the regular columnists. Opinion piece are all about getting the right carrier. People gauge the worthiness of your piece depending on where it is published. Remember this.
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