The end of another popular blog
Our friends at the Gables Home Page are ceasing operation on May 18, the economics of blogging are causing them to shut down. Seems that no one wants to pay to advertise.
The Gables Home Page was one of over 20 blogs that were given grant money from the Knight Foundation a few years back, I always questioned why the Grapevine was not part of that group, as many received $100,000 and that would have been a great thing.
“While community support and accolades for the site were strong, advertising sales and funding remained a constant challenge,” said Executive Director Andria Hanley. Amen to that.
Sounds so familiar. People would stop me daily on the street to ask me to bring the Grapevine back when I had taken that break in September. I honestly had no intention of coming back and truly enjoyed the break from the constant work schedule, but I thought I could make a go of it again if I turned it into a business and not just keep it as a free community service.
The funny thing is that none of the people who asked me to return have come forth with advertising dollars. Now would be a good time to support the Grapevine. Maybe some of the people who advertised in the Gables Home Page could advertise here, too, since we now cover Coral Gables in the Grapevine.
The ad rates are here.
The Gables Home Page was one of over 20 blogs that were given grant money from the Knight Foundation a few years back, I always questioned why the Grapevine was not part of that group, as many received $100,000 and that would have been a great thing.
“While community support and accolades for the site were strong, advertising sales and funding remained a constant challenge,” said Executive Director Andria Hanley. Amen to that.
Sounds so familiar. People would stop me daily on the street to ask me to bring the Grapevine back when I had taken that break in September. I honestly had no intention of coming back and truly enjoyed the break from the constant work schedule, but I thought I could make a go of it again if I turned it into a business and not just keep it as a free community service.
The funny thing is that none of the people who asked me to return have come forth with advertising dollars. Now would be a good time to support the Grapevine. Maybe some of the people who advertised in the Gables Home Page could advertise here, too, since we now cover Coral Gables in the Grapevine.
The ad rates are here.
posted by Tom Falco at 12:01 PM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
11 Comments:
Cuase people like them made a onces fun thing to browse on the internet all about money!!!!!!!Thanks for nothing and good ridence
Maybe we should work for free 100 hours a week for your entertainment enjoyment.
Grape,
Unfortunately, there's a sense of entitlement out there. Give me what I want and need to know, do all the work for me, and then thank me for reading the products of your labor. For free.
Most people don't stop to think about the endless hours it takes to come up with stories. On print as well as online. And frankly, they don't care to know -
I hope you get more support, particularly from the merchants in the Grove who have always been reluctant to advertise anywhere, and who then rapidly moan and cry when their businesses fail.
Thank you for what you do.
Grape, have you considered making a website of your own instead of going through blogspot.com? I think it might be more beneficial if you invested on making your site look more legit and interactive. Just a thought. I really appreciate what you do and how you do it. Much love to all the Grovites out there!
Blogspot is the Blog address, I have a main page at www.CoconutGroveGrapevine.com. I thought of just having it go through to the blog, but I like having the gateway page separate.
After 8 years, thousands of readers a month, many long term contract ads, many awards, stories picked up by the Herald, Huffington Post, Chicago Papers, etc., I think the Grapevine is "legit and interactive."
Sorry you don't like it. Perhaps you can find something else pretty to read.
ccgv rocks
I never said that I didn't like it. Sorry if you took offense to my comment. I had a thought that might be beneficial. Take it or leave it, I really don't care. There is no need to insert the snarky comments, though. What kind of a business puts down their patrons anyways... I am a frequent visitor but perhaps that may change.
Stay snarky Grape! :)
The presentation is secondary to content. When folks start knocking what the album cover looks like and ignoring the music you know they have little to contribute.
It's the curse of creativity. The curse of writers, musicians, painters and pretty much any endevour of those with an artistic bent is the aditude that their work should come at little or no cost to the consumer.
-cn
I don't think that poster was knocking the website. I think the poster was trying to give advice with good intentions. That's my impression at least.
Anon 7:58PM :
If you are a frequent reader you should identify yourself. Also be happy Grape came back and stick to positives.
Wow, you people are rough. Just reading the comment thread for 1st time, and thought 5:05's comment was meant to be helpful and constructive.
Instead, the person got jumped on by the author and others. 2:51, It shouldn't matter if the person is Bob or John or Susan or Maria. 5:05 was appreciative to cggv and got a snide response.
My opinion was that the Gables page was part of work already being done by the Gables Foundation and wouldn't necessarily need a lot of advertising to run the site, perhaps no different than the site of any other business.
I understand that an independent venture like the Grapevine needs to have advertising in order to pay whomever is doing the job of investigation, writing, posting, etc. However, there are a lot of people who do run sites as part-time fun, hobbies, etc, not for profit, and have other jobs that pay the bills. Perhaps the people who asked the editor to return thought he was doing it for pleasure and not as an income producing venture.
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