The Future of JOTR
11/05/08
[donation]
By Joel Thurtell
Longtime readers of joelontheroad.com may have noticed the blog went through a dry spell this past week when for several days no columns were posted.
Well, I HOPE you noticed.
Rumors that we were hit by a strike are unfounded, however.
It is NOT true that the entire staff staged a walkout, led by music critic Pete Pizzicato playing the kazoo.
Nor would it be correct to say that the chief henchman was a henchwoman, food critic Melanie Munch, who did NOT protest my refusal to continue subsidizing cheese blintzes for the entire staff.
I never approved those blintzes in the first place.
Nor is it true that star writer Luke Warm, shop steward for Local 2011119 of the Amalgamated League of Blogbloviators, handed me a list of 99 demands that I promptly fed into the document shredder.
First of all, JOTR doesn’t even OWN a document shredder.
Second, Luke Warm is NOT my star writer. Star confabulator would be a more apt description.
I’m sorry, Luke, but you pushed me into a corner.
The fact is, and this is true, that JOTR is approaching a crossroads. Next month will mark the anniversary of joellontheroad.com.
The blog has turned out very differently from what I envisioned as I packed boxes and got ready to bail out of the Detroit Free Press where my last day after a bit more than 23 years was November 30, 2007.
My plan was to produce a weekly blog-newspaper containing the same kind of first-person feature columns I’d been writing for the Community Free Press.
That notion fell flat before I even started when it suddenly occurred to me that every mile I drive, every hour I spend reporting and writing, is compensated not by a daily newspaper but by yours truly.
My idea of selling ads to cover costs never went anywhere. Who would sell those ads?
Hey, who would BUY them?
So he idea of writing first-person features about other people vanished and in its place, I found myself. Yes, found my SELF. Or at least. I began mining themes and ideas that were mine, rather than those that were either assigned or guided by standard newspaper thinking.
It has been an adventure.
I’m now struggling to install improvements in this site. And I’m trying to bring to life other sites that will allow me to mine more deeply into areas of interest.
In particular, I’ll be looking harder at environmental issues. And looking deeper. In the next few days, I can’t predict exactly when, I’ll launch a series of columns about pollution problems and the Rouge River.
Hang onto your hats.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
Me?
