Text Tree: A Week of Interviews on New Media v1.4

Yes, yes, it’s a little late in the day to be posting a feature (nearly four in the afternoon may as well be midnight on the interweb) but you must understand: those chocolates needed to be eaten while watching daytime television. They’d have gone bad otherwise! Come on, interweb! Either way, we’re making up for it with an interview in our ongoing “Text Tree” series featuring none other than Joystiq’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Grant. He explained the reasoning behind getting into podcasting for him and how we (as, ‘the media’) are trying — and sometimes failing –  at making new forms of content delivery work. He also gives a shoutout to Stephen Totilo ’cause hey, why not?

Phillyfied Chris Grant fact: Dude lives in Philly! Massive, colossus-sized blog’s Editor-in-Chief lives and works out of Philadelphia. Suck on that, San Francisco! And now, the interview.

(GEEK): As a host/creator of the Joystiq Podcast, could you explain why you think podcasting is an important approach for journalistic coverage, and more specifically, games writing/journalism?

The logic behind starting up the podcast was specifically to present a more casual, laid-back approach to delivering the news. I know what you’re thinking: “But Chris, Joystiq is a blog! You guys had a Star Wars-themed day where you secretly snuck in references all day! Even more casual than that?”

Sounds crazy, right! Here’s the deal: At Joystiq, we write with the editorial “we” and though the more astute readers may parse a personality from each post, most don’t. They visit the site to gather the news and, in turn, we take that responsibility very seriously. On the other hand, we know there are readers who do want a more personal – and more in-depth – take on the news. And thus, the Joystiq Podcast was born from that desire.

Why is it important? Well, I don’t know if I’d say it’s “important” at all – but I would argue it’s valuable. It helps us reach our audience more directly; it helps our audience put personalities to the names they read every day on the site; and, conceptually, it satisfies a need so we can focus on delivering the news in as entertaining a way as possible so readers can study up on, say, the latest first-person shooter instead of parsing who’s who from a dozen different first-person singular pronouns.

Also, people can exercise while listening to them. (Hey, Stephen!)

(GEEK): In your time as a games journalist/games enthusiast, you’ve seen games writers laid off or resign for other ventures (be they game-related or otherwise). It could be said that the cutbacks we’ve seen budget-wise in games journalism are symptomatic of changing business models that are effecting journalism on the whole. In that regard, do you believe Joystiq or, maybe more importantly, all publishing entities in the games writing industry are adequately adapting to changing business models?

I think Joystiq – as an example of streamlined, niche content – is emblematic of the evolution of content on the web, and where the audiences are going. Many larger organizations have found it difficult to compete in an increasingly granular, balkanized environment – notably, an environment that Joystiq thrives in. Not to mention what happens when you mix an immensely tech-savvy audience with legacy, print-oriented business models and, well, I think you get the idea.

But we’re all still learning – content producers, bidness folks, ad buyers, everyone. Podcasts are great, but they cost money to produce and they’re famously difficult to monetize. So, still do them? Build the audience and hope the advertisers find you? That’s a valiant strategy, but it hasn’t always worked out in the past.

(GEEK): What else do you believe we should be doing, as journalists, to pursue better coverage going forward? What should we be doing better?

I’d like to see games writers avoid the pitfall of PR spoon-feeding: champion games you believe in, regardless of the outreach. Ignore games that should be ignored. Fight for interviews with the creators of games, not just the producers who’ve been cleared for press interviews.

Also, really: stop going on junkets and accepting inappropriate swag. I think it’s weird that I even have to address that one though, but seriously. Just say “No.”