bustle enters women’s media world with a bang
A few days ago Bryan Goldberg blogged about his hopes and dreams for new site Bustle.com which he touted as a brand new site for women’s interest that ‘puts world news and politics alongside beauty tips.’
When launching the site, Goldberg made some huge calls including, ‘women’s publishers have completely lost sight of which decade their readers are living in … magazines like UsWeekly talk to women as though they were children, and they fail to connect popular culture with any form of social commentary.’
This comment drew the most scorn from commentators:
‘Yes, we believe that a partner-track attorney can be passionate about world affairs and celebrity gossip. On the same day. During the same coffee break. And there is nothing wrong with that. Welcome to the year 2013.’
Even written with good intent, this comment smacks of condescension, and harks back to the old cliché that women are experts at multi-tasking. It also reminds me of a little something Tony Abbott said about ‘women of calibre.’
Goldberg was shot down in flames on Twitter and in the blog-world. Not just about what he said but for what he failed to acknowledge, for suggesting that Bustle is somehow revolutionary, and for not giving credit where credit is due for the plethora of women’s sites that cover this type of content.
MSN news summed up the general mood when they wrote,
‘If something is not explicitly “for her” then apparently it’s exclusively for men … He just raised $6.5 million to launch an ostensibly feminist women’s website, Bustle.com, because he feels there was nothing else like it online (um, has he never heard of Jezebel? xoJane? The Hairpin?) No, Goldberg claims, there is no other such site where women can go to read the news and ALSO read gossip and beauty crap.’
Goldberg has since apologised in a second lengthy blog post that he linked to via twitter with the words, ‘I messed up. Big time. I owe a lot of smart people an apology’
The post itself also begins with, ‘I messed up’ And ends with an open-hearted apology:
‘Most women are completely open to the idea of a man starting a company aimed at women, and hiring a large team of women. But for men who do so, it is not enough that we build strong relationships with our female colleagues — something that I have tried to do at Bustle. We owe it to the public at large to approach the situation with great attentiveness. My blog post came nowhere near achieving that.
Instead, it undermined a lot of great people, here at Bustle and in the wider media space. And for that I really am sorry.’
The response has been understandably mixed. A range between those impressed with his humility and those who have said that even a mea culpa of this magnitude won’t cut it – see comments at the end of Goldberg’s post.
But amidst all this frenzy Bustle.com has kept on publishing, no doubt as it was always intended to do. The site is full of articles organised under News, Entertainment, Fashion & Beauty, Lifestyle and Books. I haven’t seen the stats for hits to the page, but they are no doubt up following this recent controversy.
There are two other points in Goldberg’s original post that are worth looking at,
- ‘What’s unreal is how neglected and underserved the women’s publishing business has become — especially relative to the market opportunity.’
This is in the context of Goldberg having just raised $6.5 million in capital towards the site. Goldberg is out to make a point about realising the lucrative nature of this market. He also outlines objectives that would demonstrate he is out to engage the market in other ways than just financial:
- Maybe we need a destination that is powered by the young women who currently occupy the bottom floors at major publishing houses.
According to the ‘contact’ section of the website, anyone can submit to this publication. It might not be so easy to get published but there is equity in the approach.
As I said, reading about Goldberg’s failed posts caused me to check out Bustle.com; and I would say many others took the same journey. So whether it was indeed a complete lack of thought, or respect for women’s publications lathered in the excitement of launching a new venture, or a cunning marketing trick to attract readers to the site, Bustle has joined the internet community with a bang. Time will tell how the publication pans out, and whether feminist commentators warm to its presence.
