Assuming you know that I also do music reviews on my other blog, Milliblog, I faced an interesting and perplexing situation last week.
I got a call from a national daily to syndicate my music reviews as a weekly column. Since this is a daily that I admire and look up to, in terms of editorial quality, I was delighted! But, after a couple of discussions, I was told that they have an exclusivity clause and that I have to hold the reviews till they go on print. So, if my weekly print column is slated for Saturdays, and if I listen to a new soundtrack on, say Monday, I can write the review, send it to the publication on Wednesday, but upload it to my blog only on Saturday morning! That may not fall under the purview of syndication, if I understand it’s meaning right.
I know for a fact that by then I’d have tons of mails and comments on Facebook about why the review is not up yet, in my blog! So, here are some questions!
1. I completely understand the exclusivity clause. Film reviewers like Baradwaj Rangan write for The New Indian Express and he takes that review to his blog only after it appears in print. But, I believe he started as a print reviewer first and took to blogging later. So, should it be different for someone like me, who is a online reviewer first and taking on print reviews as an after-thought?
2. Just as the publication is bothered about it’s readers, should I be bothered about my blog’s readers, however limited, in comparison, it may be? Or just treat readers as readers regardless of medium and stagger the review to time it with print edition?
3. From my perspective, I see syndication of music reviews as a way the publication can be represented in one of the most ignored parts of journalism in India – music reviews. There are film and gadget reviews all over the country, but music reviews have not kept pace with the trend and are mostly relegated to monthly formats in music magazines. That may be too late for so much music releasing week after week. That was the reason why I even started Milliblog in the first place. And I used to do this syndication with Bangalore Mirror (a Bangalore-based tabloid from The Times of India group for about 2 odd years till it was stopped recently due to a design change) – this syndication was with the intention that music reviews reach more people, due to Bangalore Mirror’s print reach, besides online readers, who anyway have access to my blog. There was no exclusivity clause in Bangalore Mirror and they understood the value they were getting from my content. But, in the other publication’s case, should I treat their readers as first priority and my blog’s readers as second priority, just because the reach is bigger in the print edition?
There are times when I do exclusives for select publications and I do maintain their exclusivity – it goes on print first and in my blog later – but these are occasional, one-off pieces. Music reviews are the main form of content in my blog and holding them for a print seems a lot unfair just because I’m getting a wider audience with print.
I understand that it is finally my call and I chose to stand with my blog and blog’s readers. I’d have loved to take the content to print, but not at the expense of my existing readers. Even if it sounds haughty, I honestly think that the publication has more to gain from my content than me gaining from their offer – monetary or reach-wise. And, I really don’t think anyone’s going to complain that the review they read on Saturday morning is 4 days old from my blog. If anything, they would perhaps assume that their favorite daily has now started a regular column for music reviews and it is by someone they already know.
Going beyond me and my blog, how would you treat this issue? Think about it from a broader blogger-first, journalist-later scenario – where would your loyalties lie? To your existing readers…or to your new, larger audience via print?