Blogging to Make My Journalism Degree Proud

Trying to blog like the writer my Journalism degree thinks I am

My first paying job was as a youth reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the ripe age of 12, covering young adult books, movies, music, and events. From that seed, I discovered Hunter S. Thompson and Skip Hollandsworth and naturally followed the journalism path that (obvious to me) was going to be my life’s work.

And then I graduated with a Journalism degree and reality hit and I kept waiting tables.

Eventually, I found myself in the digital marketing world, employing that strategic story-telling mind writing branded copy for websites and emails and social media. My current job title is Content Writer, and more than anything I am just happy to have a decent salary while still being called a writer.

Despite the title and ample opportunities to be clever and quippy with my copy, the longing for long-form writing still beckoned. My dreams of hard-hitting, long-lasting editorials seemed to be defunct.

Enter the blog.

My initial impression of blogging for work was a trivial task: write up something semi-timely and on message, post, and never look back. My personal experience with blogging was as an angst-riddled teen: write up something melodramatic, post, and then delete the whole thing years later to ensure no one can ever look back.

But the idea of blogging as a form of journalism wasn’t a concept to me until I was living it. February 2019 my job sent me to the world’s largest healthcare IT conference, HIMSS, to cover the event. My duty was to attend as many sessions as possible, write up a daily blog recap, send off to my editor at the end of each day for the revision process, and get it up live on the company blog that night. Same-day deadlines⁠—my journalism heart was bursting with joy and my brain was drained at the end of each day.

From there, opportunities opened up for more reporter-style blogging on topics like data breaches, competitors filing chapter 11, more intense events, and plenty of ghostwriting thought leadership for C-suite executives in between.

I am not alone in this shift of perspective on blogging. In a survey from Orbit Media of more than 1,000 bloggers, the trend from quick, disposable content to more weighted, measured work has steadily grown over the last 5 years and is earning credibility through its results.

My beloved long-form content is coming back to life in blog format more and more! Today’s typical blog post runs approximately 1151 words⁠—a 42% increase from 2014’s 800-word average (this piece is running a measly 884 words but please don’t hold that against me). While the majority of current bloggers still write under 1,000 words, long-form pieces reportedly turn out stronger results than their shorter counterparts. Even the champion of listicles, Buzzfeed, has dedicated resources to more investigative and editorial articles in a section literally titled “Reader”.

With this increase in average word count, it is easy to understand an increase in hours spent per post as well. Bloggers are spending more time for each piece with the average post taking roughly 3.5 hours to write, up from the 2014 average of 1-2 hours, and are reporting stronger impact from posts with more time invested. Even with those same-day deadlines, the hours spent cramped on the floor of a conference center frantically typing definitely added up and I have the back problems to prove it.

How I spent the majority of my time at the HIMSS conference

The real results reported from this increased investment of time and depth of content brings a level of seriousness to blogging that was once reserved for more traditional content. While the company blog was once set on the intern’s desk to have at and hope for the best, a steady rise of copyeditors are joining the blogger’s team. The formal editing process seen in true journalism bunkers is bringing its benefits to the blogging world, again showing better results than the former status quo of self-editing. Directly from the survey: Bloggers who work with editors are 50% more likely to report ‘strong results’ than bloggers who do not.

Sidenote: After many years in the marketing world, I like to joke that I thought I was a good writer until I got a copyeditor. All jokes aside, I am self-editing this blog and feel increasingly anxious with each paragraph I complete.

Blogs are not only starting to be recognized as an accessible form of journalism (for both consumers and writers like myself) but are also being given the credit to invest more resources thanks to their captive audiences. While attention spans are notoriously getting shorter, long-form content still resonates and yields higher engagement rates. A study from the Pew Research Center found that even on cellphones, higher word counts actually kept readers engaged for longer amounts of time⁠—posts having 5000 or more words averaged at 270 seconds vs 116 seconds for their lesser word counterparts.

So much more can be said for this paradigm shift and so many others have said it better than myself, but this post was not intended to be a retrospective on blogging. It is simply a blog about my expanding appreciation for blogging.

And maybe a reference piece for when my relatives ask if I’m ever going to do something with that degree I got.

I’m trying, Opa, I’m trying.