As if the blog world weren’t bleak enough with layoffs and a few well-compensated sites hoarding traffic and precious memes, now mainstream media outlets are chipping away at bloggers’ quotas by doing their posts for them.
Esquire‘s Web site has a feature about the making of its current cover, which features Halle Berry posed like Bill Clinton from the magazine’s December 2000 issue.
First, Esquire juxtaposes the two Platon-shot covers so readers can see how similar they are, which everyone knows is a staple of bloggers the world over. (Media Mob takes this personally.)
Then the magazine offers the sort of scurrilous "Tale of the Tape" side-by-side comparison that bloggers love to rattle off, as in:
Halle Berry:In 2005 was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award, "saluting the worst Hollywood has to offer," for her role in Catwoman.
These are easy, quota-filling posts that belong to bloggers, not professional magazine writers and editors. Sure, these things might’ve once existed in magazines’ fronts-of-book back in the day, but they belong to bloggers now. Bloggers need them.
What’s next, Esquire? A blog entirely made up of YouTube videos and lists? Too late.
