It used to be simply an egocentric Net conduit from which to promulgate one's analysis on anything from energy legislation or last night's dinner date to the joys of watching The Food Network - as if anybody really gives a damn - but now Web log (blog) culture is firmly entrenched in the media zeitgeist, producing an atypical hybrid of gossip and news on an instantaneous Internet swivel. Today there are blogs for and about everything. That's everything.
Broadening the medium from hobby to opportunism, a new class of Net journalists has nudged their way to the frontlines of media dissemination, further blurring the lines between reporting the news and reporting on the news... if that makes any sense.
Of course the big bad S-E-X wasn't about to miss out on the Web journaling circus, as more than a few (see: hundreds of) sex blogs now litter the Net Superhighway. Foremost among them is Daze Reader, much like a Drudge Report for sex.
Launched in October 2000, DazeReader.com is an extensive habitat of links that "contains informative, opinionated and often explicit discussion about sex (also culture, technology, art, politics, gossip, ideas, drugs and rock & roll)"; so reads the home page introduction.
Created by Evan Daze, the site presents numerous sub-categories, from sexual politics, TV, books, and pornography to technology, video games, columnists, film, magazines, sex (and non-sex) Web logs, kooky sex reports and really anything where media and sex connect. There is also Evan's personal blog, which is a rundown of daily news, with a decidedly sexual spin.
The reasoning for launching the site, according to Evan, was both personal and financial. "I wanted to find a creative way to make a living," he says.
After graduate school, Evan "dabbled" in the adult Internet business by putting up free galleries with banner ads for TGPs. "It was very easy to make lots of money doing that for a while, but it gradually got boring and much less lucrative," says Evan, who resides in Austin, Texas, and has a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin. "It was serious career rethinking and brainstorming time. I really liked being self-employed, I liked working on the Internet, my technical and design skills were limited; my real skill and passion were writing, researching, editing, pursuing little intellectual hobbies."
Evan was aware of the burgeoning Web log phenomenon and planned a variation on the theme. "Most were completely non-commercial," he says, "but Drudge Report was already big and Arts & Letters Daily was just starting as a for-profit Web log with ads.
"There were a couple sex news digest sites, full of pieces about sex crimes or child porn busts or porn star gossip, which didn't much appeal to me. I figured I could do something similar but much better."
Daze Reader receives 7,000-plus hits per day, according to Evan, up from 2,000 in early 2003. Evan hopes this trend continues, though profitability remains a goal. "I wouldn't say it's been successful on the business end," says Evan, "but I'm working on it. As a personal hobby, it's been enormously successful."
Most impressive about Daze Reader is its depth of content, a direct correlation to Evan's research insight. "I read lots of Web logs and try to always give credit when I snag something from them," says Evan. "Sometimes readers will e-mail me with stories. Sometimes I just surf aimlessly like any other procrastinating Web geek, find something that piques my interest, follow links from there, plug it into Google, follow new threads."
Evan likes the idea of personal publishing as a means to opine about diverse subjects for an equally diverse audience. "To my mind, the best thing about Web logs is the way writing has become an avocation for so many people who might otherwise have had no outlet for their writing outside of official settings, like work or school, or purely personal forms, like personal letters or diaries," says Evan. "And I love the way the Internet allows small communities to form around particular interests, which predates blogs, of course... listservs, Usenet, etcetera."
Evan doesn't believe that Web logs proffer any threat to actual newsgathering institutions, simply because the bloggers need something to link to, to comment on. "But for things like punditry, reviews, fandom, industry watching, and so on, low-overhead amateur publishing outfits definitely have their place alongside the bigger professional outlets," he says.
Though there is an extensive XXX guide (all membership sites) on Daze Reader, Evan admits he doesn't know too much about the industry. "I wish the online industry had more trustworthy people and companies to deal with," he says, "or at least that I had better instincts for recognizing the trustworthy people and avoiding the rip-off artists."
Daze Reader exists in a most interesting time, as both adult and mainstream entertainment continue their much-hyped courtship. Daze Reader is a Union Station, if you will, between the two.
"It makes sense for the barriers to break down on the media and industry side, because there's so much overlap on the audience side," says Evan. "Most people into ?adult entertainment' aren't only into ?adult entertainment'; they also read books, go to movies, follow sports, play video games, track their investments, argue about politics, whatever."
He adds, "I think of my audience as people who have a playful, libertine attitude toward sex and adult entertainment but who also have all sorts of other eclectic interests."
Evan speaks of big plans for Daze Reader, but remarks that he is "a horrible procrastinator." Still, forthcoming features should include a magazine section with original content, DVD reviews, a store, and an expanded links section. Evan also mentions he's mulling a redesign.
The landscape of Web logs is bound to go through myriad changes as the opinion parade takes on more loquacious guests. Is it the future of journalism? Maybe. But undeniably more and more news consumers are keen on becoming news suppliers. Says Evan, "That's one nice thing about Internet publishing: You don't need credentials, you don't need to convince an editor to hire you, you don't need to establish yourself as an expert before getting published - you just need to convince enough readers that you're worth reading, and voil�, you're an expert."
