Jakartass - Asian Correspondent?

I've been invited to join Asian Correspondent (AC), a new online news portal, as their Jakarta stringer. I'm flattered but ....

First up, I think AC is an admirable idea. The Online Journalism blog, from which I've lifted a few bits, gives much of the background .

- CEO James Craven believes that instructive blogging should be paid.
- AC is a news site intended to report and aggregate news and information from the continent.
- Craven hopes to capitalize on the inarguable talent that lies in the blogosphere, and also tap into the mobilizing power of the Internet that is so exclusive to blogs and citizen media.
- To achieve this, Craven and his team hand picked thirty-five bloggers spanning thirteen different Asian countries after a careful survey of the region’s blogosphere, based on quality of reporting, relevance and popularity.

As I said, I'm flattered and the pay would cover Our Kid's school fees, which are a considerable proportion of my monthly expenditure.

However, several bloggers, although supportive of AC, have decided to remain independent.

Absolutely Bangkok is one of them.

- Writing for Asian Correspondent wouldn’t be subject to direct editorial control or restrictions. Any blogger on board keeps on writing what he or she has been writing all along.
- The initial agreement is good for one year (or a trial period of three months - J). I would have lost any control over layout and comments for one year. So what, you say. Why say no to many thousands of more hits. Call me a romantic and the design of aB.com (and Jakartass) boring and content so-so, but somehow this unimportant little site grew from nothing into something and, seriously, hidden somewhere behind AC’s main portal I’d fear to descend into oblivion among dozens of outstanding fellow bloggers chasing headlines and a front mention on AC.

For the sake of independence, what’s it worth?

My dilemma is that I fear I would have to write for a whole new readership and strive for greater consistency.

To some, I'm an "opinionated old fart", I suffer from ADD but yet I earn respect .... from entire communities for the understanding of the foreign culture you live in, indeed your long established reputation on the internet allows you to further your credentials and qualifications via other mediums. Obviously, from your years of being here, we could all learn something - we're not demanding an anthropology title.

And therein all that lies my worry. I was invited to rewrite Culture Shock! Jakarta because of Jakartass. My blog is essentially the diary of a life of a long-term resident in the Big Durian, yet I write from the perspective of my British upbringing. I rarely write about other Asian countries or consider how Jakarta/Indonesia fits in geopolitically, so Jakartass serves a relatively small community.

I have written to AC to ask if they'd consider a Letter From Jakarta, perhaps bi-weekly, whereby I could continue Jakartass basically as it's always been with its references to my London interests such as Charlton Athletic and all those other titbits which take my fancy or are strictly personal.

Meanwhile, I'm perhaps leaning towards signing up but would like the input of regular readers.

What say you?

Please leave a comment or, if you prefer, email me.
 

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