Housing Chronicles in this month's NewsTex Blogger Spotlight

In early 2008, I signed up with a blog syndication service called Newstex, and they regularly feed my blog posts to LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, CanMedia West and, most recently, the Amazon Kindle. This month they asked me to participate in their monthly "Blogger in the Spotlight" interview series, in which they inquire why I started blogging, my plans for the future and what I think about the media landscape and where blogs fit in that universe. You can read that interview here, but for now here are some excerpts:

Newstex: How did you get started writing your current blog?

Patrick Duffy: I started my blog in November of 2007 after noticing that almost all of the housing blogs online were focused only on the housing bubble as well as to promote my company, MetroIntelligence Real Estate Advisors. Many didn’t even pretend to be objective, only focusing on the bad news that would help the authors substantiate their theory that the housing market was certainly doomed. Since I wanted to create a blog for the long term, I specifically avoided any reference to a housing ‘bubble’ or ‘crisis,’ and instead chose the very generic term ‘Housing Chronicles.’ Over time, I’ve expanded it to include coverage not just on housing, but also on commercial development...

Newstex: What makes your blog unique?

I write my blog from the perspective of a consultant to the building industry for over 20 years who has already been through one of these boom-and-bust cycles. My regular reading list is pretty comprehensive, including most major newspapers and a variety of magazine titles related to current events, politics, general business as well as real estate development...

Newstex: What is the best thing that has happened to you as a result of your work on your blog?

I’d say definitely the new blogger friends I’ve made online as well as new clients I probably wouldn’t have met through traditional networking. For example, last week a reporter and blogger for the Orange County Register interviewed me for his BlogTalkRadio show, and I was so impressed with the technology and the final product that I’ve signed up for my own show and will be interviewing the authors of the real estate books I review. Another blogger with traffic exponentially greater than mine became a fan of my writing, so now he features some of his favorite posts for a weekend thread, which in turn has helped build my traffic...

Newstex: What effects do you think blogging will have on traditional media? How about on your industry?

I think that blogging is already having a tremendous impact on traditional media, and I’m not sure that attacking bloggers who use material from AP is going to save their business models; what the industry needs to do is come up with a ‘fair use’ policy, so bloggers can cite a maximum number of words from an original article and must provide a link as well as appropriate credit.

From the very beginning of Housing Chronicles, I’ve made it a policy to cite my sources at least two to three times in a post. In order for traditional papers to survive, they’re going to have to make it palatable to charge users for content (either through micropayments or subscription models), reduce their cost structures and see bloggers as alliance partners rather than enemies.