Paul Wells on Quebec ... and monetizing blogging

I was quibbling the other day about something Paul Wells had on his Substack, so it's only fair to say I am charmed as well as enlightened by his most recent Substack post,  a memoir about covering the 1995 Quebec Referendum as a newish journalist in Montreal that also offers some perceptive testimony to that moment in history .  

I retain very vivid memories of the 1976 Quebec referendum, and somehow the 1995 one seemed at the time like "first time tragedy, second time farce" and I obsessed much less over it. 1995 was not like that for Paul Wells.  Go read it.

In recent years I've been interested in Paul Wells not just for his commentary, but also from wondering if he will make a go of it as a self-sustaining commentator on Canadian politics. We always hear of people -- from the Kardashians to Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson-- making nice incomes from Patreons, YouTube channels, Substacks, and all the other digital media that become hot for a while.

But I'm pretty sure those people are pretty much all Americans or people pitching to the vast American (and global) audience. 

Does any individual make any significant revenue through income from online subscribers who are paying for material directed exclusively at Canadian topics?  Yes, collective journalism projects like The Tyee and The Local continue, though always seeking more support. But I'm thinking of writers, individual journalists, maybe videographers, and the like.

When Paul Wells left magazine journalism, he had (I seem to recall) both some university support and some private or foundation backing for his venture into becoming self-supporting online, as well as lots of Canada-wide name recognition  -- and lots to say too, for sure. Few others had a better shot at succeeding, I thought. If he made a go of it, it would be a sign it was at least possible.

Recently, at a time when Substack, having swallowed paleo-blogging, seems to be becoming swallowed up by video presentations, Wells reported he was giving up the video portion of his Substack as not cost-effective.  That did not sound like a Paul Wells IPO might be coming soon. Do online videostorians and the like actually have real revenue to support their habit of presenting Canadian content? 

I have never monetized this blog, first because I never expected anyone to read it.  And even when I realized it was getting views, I still very much doubted the revenue potential in that.  Also, the fact that I can quit it whenever it ceases to amuse me has remained important to me.  The moment this became an income source, I would suddenly have a goat to feed. Who wants that responsibility?

But I remain intrigued by the market for Canadian-focussed online commentary.  Thoughts?  

Borealia blog shutting down

After a decade of encouraging academics to exchange thoughts and theses and opinions about early Canadian history (most of which emphatically confirmed there actually is a lot going on in pre-Confederation studies), the blog Borealia/Early Canadian History is doing a controlled shutdown, with just a couple of posts yet to come before it goes silent.  The editors say in a closing statement that they need a break "for a variety of entirely normal professional and personal reasons."

There ought to be room for academically-centred blogging, but maybe those blogs sometimes get caught up in academic models of operation: administrative teams, concern for teaching applications of the blog, beset with budgetary concerns, competing with alternate publishing opportunities, etc. 

The blogs that survive, I come to believe, depend on having a few logomaniacial egomaniacs who rarely have an unexpressed thought and cannot be prevented from sharing most of them.  Some pretty lively blogs have resulted.  See Lawyers, Guns, and Money, run by a bunch of history profs in the US.  Or Paul Krugman.  Blogs do best with a personality or personalities behind them, I suspect.  Opening a blog and asking other busy people to provide you with its content may always be an uphill struggle.

But: Type "Borealia" into the search box at top left and you can see how often this blog linked to Borealia, including this first notice posted very soon after Borealia launched ten years ago.  So I'm sorry to see it go.  Well done, editorial team.  I'll miss Borealia.  Is someone seeing a space open up for a new entry in the CanHist blogging world?

Wot no posting?

The classic diaries of the diplomat, author, and bon vivant Charles Richie, a dedicated diarist all his life, had occasional stretches that simply said "Work... work...work."

Probably we are not quite so burdened here, but blogging has been slow for a week or so. "Distraction... distraction.... distraction?"  

We'll be back.

History Sites Come and Go

Borealia's canoe: out of the water for a while

Borealia, the Early Canadian History blog from (but not exclusively about) Atlantic Canada, has announced a sabbatical. For the time being, I've deleted it from the list of History Blogs at right. The editors say:

It has now been almost a decade since Borealia was launched with the intention of amplifying scholarship on northern North America before the twentieth century. We hoped it would be a forum where historians of different sub-fields could make connections, and to bring this great work to educators, non-specialists, and an interested general readership. We are grateful for the community of contributors and readers who have encouraged us and made this a worthwhile venture.

Much has changed in the landscape of digital scholarship and social media since 2015, yet we remain convinced of the ongoing value of an online forum of the sort Borealia aspires to be.

But ten years is a long time, and for a variety of entirely normal professional and personal reasons, we need a break. We have decided to take a year-long sabbatical, until summer 2025.

 Well, I can understand all that.  Best wishes to all who have served -- and may again!

Most of the sites listed at the left have been been going quite a while, but all still seem to be active -- and I do use my own links to look around from time to time.

Podcasts have been the new blogs for quite some time now. So my list is now titled "History Sites of Note", not History Blogs, and I'm about to add to the list a few history-centered podcasting sites. (Update, October 4:  Additions now started.)

Blog on semi-hiatus

We're looking forward to Friday, when we start some holidays -- centered on a week at a Prince Edward Island cottage. So blogging will be slim to none for the next couple of weeks.  Maybe an Island photo or two, if the mood strikes. 

History of views counted.

I don't give a lot of respect to the view counter over on the right hand side of this page. I presume that quite a bit of whatever it reports there is inflated by flybys from Russian scammers and robot spiders and all the other weird phenomena of the internet.  

But still, when I noticed that recently the counter ticked over to two million views since 2010, I did think, "Not bad for the longest running unsubsidized Canadian history blog on the 'net." Also: 2010 is the date I installed the view counter -- the blog itself dates back to 2004.  October 8, 2004 I see on checking back.  A twentieth anniversary looms. 

Blog on Hiatus for a week

We're on holiday for a week or so. Blogging will be slim to none until at least August 24

Before leaving, I did want to make note of a new book, In Defence of Copyright by Hugh Stephens.  Stephens runs a blog on copyright and intellectual property issues that I look at regularly.  This recent post describes his book and has information on how to order.  

The official date of publication is August 19. I've just received a review copy and it looks very useful, but I have not read it yet.  Hope to get back to it when the blog returns from this week's break

Follow this Blog

 Trying to "Follow" this blog? -- that is, to receive a notification when a new item is available to read on it?

• In the blog that you want to follow, look for the Followers gadget.
• Click Follow.
• In the window that appears, click Follow.

That seems to be the process. If it is not working for you, let me know through the email address shown at right

Follow this Blog

 Apparently following this blog is still complicated. People tell me that even if they have set themselves up as followers using the gadget at right (where you click "Follow" to follow), they don't get the notifications. I thought it was pretty simple, but maybe it is not..

Now one thwarted follower tells me it may be Google to blame.  Google, he says, requires a gmail account from would-be followers when they enroll. He has a gmail account, but he never uses it, so he never sees the notifications.  

If you tried to follow but don't get notices (but you come and look here from time to time anyway), could that be the reason?

Not that I have a solution. This is all above my paygrade. For years I never knew this blog had followers. But if you understand this, please let me know.

Blog on hiatus

The blog is about to go on hiatus for a while, until early February 2023. We are going to Bali, and I do not expect to be closely engaged with Canadian history while we are there. So posting here should be slim to none, most likely none, until we are back.

On the other hand, I have been amusing myself by building a travel blog at the website wordmoore.ca. The site, called "Gone to Bali" has already launched, and I hope to be posting photos and notes on its blog section quite regularly while we are on the road. Feel free to follow along there if you are interested. If it asks for a password, enter three letters: "w," "p," and one exclamation mark.   

Blogs as history

 

"I worry there will be a move to de-emphasize the single-author manuscript: the book. Instead, anything that uses the historian’s craft or skills could count as scholarship. The most radical version might even include tweets, or at least blogs or essays online." James H. Sweet 1/

— Acadiensis (@Acadiensis) November 2, 2022

Jeez, if there is gonna be academic credit for blog posts (this tweet is quoting the embattled president of the American Historical Association), DM me and I'll tell you where to send my PhD and my tenure-stream appointment. No, actually, emeritus status might suit me.

Doldrums

 

Blogging will be slim to none for about a week.  Enjoy a holiday yourself.

Fin du Tour

Two messages to the blog last week. One says, I love the blog but tend to skip the cycling stuff. The other: thanks for the cyling coverage

Local blogger charts in techy survey

There's a thing called FeedSpot  -- "the Internet’s Largest Human Curated Database of Bloggers and Podcasts."  I'm not sure I had ever heard of it before yesterday, when I saw, quite accidently, that on July 19 they posted a ranking of "25 Best Canadian History Blogs and Websites." ranked by "traffic, social media following, domain authority, and freshness."

 The top ranked blog is the Canadian Museum of History Blog. Until now I had no idea of its existence. It rates high for Facebook and Twitter engagement, but is credited with only 2 posts per quarter. I'll start looking.

Second is The Canadian Historical Association website. I didn't know the CHA had a blog, and none is mentioned on its home page, though there is a Teachers' blog somewhere on the site. FeedSpot credits the CHA website with two posts per month.

Third takes us into serious blog territory: Active History. Though FeedSpot credits it with only thirty posts a year, it must be more like twenty a month.  Active History is active, it's history-focus, it has a big readership, lots of contributors, and good social media linkages. This is a high ranking that is definitely deserved.

And fourth is the blog you are reading now, Christopher Moore's History News. Our posting score, I'm pleased to say, is far and away the best by the survey's metrics, at three posts a week -- which seems about right. It would probably lead in the linking it does too, if they measured that. (Linking should be a key indicator of a blog's value, blogging being a collaborative medium.) Let me say as well that of the top five, Christopher Moore's History News is not only ranked the most active in posting.  It's also the only one with a single author, no institutional mandate -- and no institutional funding. No funding at all, actually.  In twenty-odd years, expenses here have been precisely zero. (Its revenues: also precisely zero. No donation box, no grants, sponsors, or advertisers, and likely to stay that way.) 

If the humans at FeedSpot ranked a little for quality, it makes me think... chance for a gold here? 

Fifth is the online magazine of urbanism Spacing.ca, which is a terrific magazine with interesting historical content on Canadian cities and urbanism. So sorta/kinda a "history" "blog" ... I guess.

Nice also to see NiCHE, Borealia, Daniel Francis's blog, Acadiensis blog, Canadian Legal History blog  -- all on my faves list (at right) -- featured in FeedSpot's top twenty-five too.  Others worth checking out too. Odd that sites like Library and Archives Canada blog, and the DCB Online didn't make the lists.  

History of following

Last November I learned some people used Feedburner to get notifications about blog posts here, and that unfortunately Feedburner had, well, burned and crashed, and they were stuck. And that was about the first time I ever considered what Feedburner was

Anyway, I belately looked into and sorted out Blogger's "Follower" gadget, and have now put it up -- at right.  If you choose to "follow," and go through a few steps, you should start getting an email notification and a link whenever this blog has a new post, and you won't have to come here blindly searching for yourself. 

If this removes an inconvenience for anyone, I'm delighted.    

Blog on hiatus

The blogger is taking a holiday, and blogging will be slim to none for a week ... though of course one can blog from anywhere, and who knows, there may be historical discoveries too good to neglect.

History of Active History

Active History values feisty opinions on historical matters, but it values data, too. Its current post is a data-driven analysis of visits to Active History over the years and what's most read and returned to among Active History posts. 

I'm aware that we don't do the same self-scrutiny at this blog. We've been kinda file-and-forget for decades. 

Seasonal best wishes, reminiscences, and blog hiatus

 Shortest day of the year!  Christmas is coming up fast. And the dearth of recent posts here suggests to me I am on the seasonal hiatus and should just declare it so.

But if you are pining for more, may I introduce you to an interview with me recently undertaken by the UBC History Department and published by the Faculty of Arts. I graduated from the UBC history program fifty years ago, and they asked me to reminisce about my historical career since then and my advice for today's history students. I like how it starts:

Q. How did your experience at UBC History influence your career?

A. It convinced me I did not love universities and did not want to be an academic — and I mean that as a compliment.

For the rest, follow this link.  

Stay well during these holidays. I was recently reading a small diary my mother kept in 1955, when my recently immigrated family, including a very young me, was living in Nelson, British Columbia. On Christmas Day 1955, my mother describes snow falling all day, the children getting up before seven in the morning, and a big crowd coming for Christmas dinner.

This year in Toronto, snow is chancy, we will not be up so early, and the dinner crowd will be smaller. Other than that: timeless.

 

Have blog, will travel

Andrea Eidinger, who ran a lively and informative blog called Unwritten Histories for quite a while, but let it lapse about a year ago, tweets to say she has been hired as head of the Library and Archives Canada website, where the blog was also informative but generally pretty dull in the past.  

Congratulations! We look forward to improvements. 

Update, November 29: In writing Saturday's brief note, I had not realized the scope of the task Andrea Eidinger takes on at LAC. Today's Toronto Star has a long story about the controversy over offensive and selective content on the Library and Archives website, particularly with regard to Indigenous topics. 

I have noted in recent years that in seeking digitized documents via the Archives website, I'm often first redirected to expository narratives about what the Archives judges I should know or want to know about Canadian history. I never found these attempts at making the Archives into a kind of teaching museum very useful. I rather thought they diverted from the Archives' real job of facilitating access to its documentary collections.  But once an institution has a public-facing online presence, the pressure to serve a large public -- and to keep the hit-rate up -- must be constant. In the always-online world, the relatively small community of researchers seeking documentary sources is now only one constituency for an archives.         

Blog mechanics: Subscriptions and Feedburner UPDATED

 A loyal reader writes to tell me she likes this blog enough to have set up a subscription to it so she's alerted to new posts (I think that's what it means). But her husband, who now wants his own subscription instead of relying on her forwarding links to him, has found that the little message at the bottom of the page doesn't function, so he is unable to subscribe. Could I just add him to my list?

Well, no, not yet, anyway. 

I did mention some months ago that Blogger, the Google-owned program on which this blog runs, was discontinuing use of the Feedburner gadget that it had attached to my blog and all Blogger-based blogs. Turns out Feedburner, all autonomous from me, was what had enabled Loyal Reader to set up her subscription but is now ignoring Loyal Reader's Husband's attempt. Since Feedburner's shutdown, it maintains existing subscriptions but does not accept new ones.

I must look into this, I guess. In the meantime, attempts to subscribe will presumably be stymied. Pending a fix, please check back from time to time; we're here fairly often.  

Thx, loyal Sandra. 

Update November 5: Help from another loyal reader:  

There's no need to use Blogger or Feedburner gadgets to subscribe. Anyone with a proper feed reader can subscribe using this URL:  http://christophermoorehistory.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default  

I use Mozilla's Thunderbird as my email reader, and it serves as a feed reader too. 

Thank you, John! I understand there are many feed readers, depending on your platform and favoured programs. Along with Thunderbird, I hear Feedly is a standard. Here's a list of recommended ones. [So: don't link to the URL in John's note above. Copy the URL, find a feed reader, then paste the URL into it.]