Farewell to Circuits, On the Blogosphere
Just over one month ago I resolved to start pitching the Circuits Section of the New York Times. Story ideas that I had dismissed because I thought they were already well known had been popping up in Circuits and I decided that I would try a few pitches. Two weeks later, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller announced that Circuits, as a stand-alone supplement, would end on March 24. Yesterday, marked the last edition.
The main reason Keller gave for ending Circuits was that too many of the supplement’s stories were appearing in other sections of the paper, including the front page. In other words, Circuits was no longer specialist enough. Stories about cell phones, wireless networks, websites, blogs, wikis, and computers were (quite rightly) no longer just of interest to techno geeks–they were mainstream.
This is true. But I am also aware how easy it is to assume that people are much more familiar with technology and the Web than they really are. A good example is that when I tell people about my blog for the first time, most do not know what one is. Meanwhile, the media and the blogosphere (especially in the US) continues to talk and act as as though it is already a part of mainstream life.
It is easy to quote numbers of bloggers in the millions and forget that, in general, most people do not read blogs and only a tiny percentage actually write them. And that’s just in the US –the home of the weblog. Elsewhere they are practically non-existent.
Yes, bloggers influence other forms of media that in turn influence those who have never even heard the word “blog”. But, in general, the blogosphere is still unknown. It is limited to a small number of people, living mainly in one part of the world. Circuits may have disappeared into the main body of the New York Times but it will still be some time before the blogosphere slips into mainstream life.
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It makes sense that they would kill Circuits. There comes a time when a publication no longer makes sense. In the mid-90s there were a bunch of magazines with names like “CD-ROM World” because CD-ROMs were somehow being heralded as the new era in interactivity. Likewise for magazines like Yahoo! Internet Life. That reminds me - I have to cancel my subscription to the Internal Combustion Engine Gazette.
Surprisingly true. I started a blog last week and when I told my mum and brother about it neither had heard of them. I thought everybody knew about them.