Following the recent launch of its official fan community, D23, and Disney World's "Moms Panel" for Q&A advice, Disney's now moved into just about every space occupied by its legion of online fan sites and communities. Disney's been polling D23 members and other customers about their use of Disney fan sites, as the company makes it move toward taking over their readership.
Of course, not every online theme park community focuses all its coverage on Disney. (Ahem.) While it's nice to hear company-approved releases from Disney and other theme parks, it's also nice for theme park fans and customers to have independent voices covering the industry. We don't work for any theme park company at Theme Park Insider, nor do we take free trips and cruises from theme parks, as some folks at other sites do.
I'm sure that the biggest Disney fan sites will endure, since entire communities don't easily pack up and move from one URL to another. But I'm glad that the Theme Park Insider community covers more than just Disney. The Disney theme park blog won't breathe a word about the Wizard World of Harry Potter. Nor will it let you know about neat deals like free soft drinks and parking at Holiday World. Nor will the Disney blog, or the Disney fan sites, delve into the ownership situations at competing chains such as Busch and Six Flags.
And, most important, your non-park-sanctioned snark is always welcome here.
FWIW, I'd love to hear what you think about the new "official" Disney blog. I'm not above (or below) ripping off certain features if TPI readers would like to see us try them, too. ;-)
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Seriously, though, there are a fair number of people who now rely upon the income of running these fan sites as their day job. They've faithfully put out the Disney party line for years and now, having done little else than run what's Disney's fed them, they are at risk from losing their gig as readers go instead directly to the Mouse.
Yeah, Disney should have done this directly all along. And the biggest fan sites (and indie sites like TPI) will do fine, as Disney's entry on the Web expands the readership for online-delivered theme park news. But a few, smaller Disney fan sites are gonna lose their economic viability as Disney takes on more of this functionality in-house. And I think that's too bad for those folks.
BTW, Disney pays Ad Space on this site right? If so, it would seem that they do care for some of the sites (like TPI). I don't think its much of a stab, but rather a poke to see if they can get into the blog sphere. It also, whether you believe it or not, is an insider's look of whats going down at Disney.
I like the Ghost video though! Wish I was going to DL!
I wonder if this official blog will link into our “Best Attraction Tournament” next year? Yikes!
(I love how some Disney fans are tying themselves in knots over my over-the-top irreverent headline for this piece. The flock follows the pastor....)
FWIW, Universal's even worse than Disney on lock-down control of message these days. Where's Universal's blog? Twitter account? They've done so well with HHN, it's surprising that they haven't embraced social media for the rest of the year.
Of course, DoomBuggies rarely updates its site with cool news. I stumbled across the fact that Disney Records released the 1969 promotional record, "The Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion" on CD last week with the original art booklet included and high-res images on the disc. I couldn't find anything about it on Doombuggies. Maybe Disney will have more updates.
I have noticed that press people tend to like to use attention grabbing headlines that may or may not be true. How about that Harry Potter Headline about the new theme park? I have noticed that one decline of the news is that it wants to be more entertaining than informative.
Now I am not saying that Mr. Niles is not entitled to whatever he wants to name the article, but he is not putting it out as information news, but rather lets us as readers decide . After all, its his opinion and yes, the headline got my attention.
I really do not see this hurting the current sites out there, especially this one. I think it could make us better. Then again, how is this different than all the theme parks having twitter sites?
"Police investigate murder case"
or
"Headless body in topless bar!"
(The journalism school classic, by the way.) FWIW, I won't go that tasteless on y'all, but I really thought that a calm, corporate head just didn't work for a post about a calm, corporate blog.
All that said, after James' post, I'm wishing I'd not gone this route at all, and instead had written a gag post in the Disney Blog style "profiling" the Yeti at DAK.
James, if you want to take a "stab" at that (sorry, couldn't resist...) the comments are open to you.
Thank you for that wonderful, traffic-building idea!
Anyone got any thoughts on declaring Twitter War with @Shamu?
Another thing that keeps us honest is that we need to use our real names (with so exceptions). The comment section in online stories gets a little wild.
Again, as for this new blog thing, the D23 blog is so far more informative than the new one. I actually have been impressed with the D23 except the Disneyland this, Disneyland that (I'm a WDW guy!).
I say make war with Shamu!
Can't see something like "Disney Sux, Universal is so much better" sticking around on the site.
Or "Walt is actually still very much alive, thanks to advanced technology and a robotic body"
Which is actually very true, I just made it up so it must be :)
The public is really cool. That's one thing I learned, ironically enough, working for Disney. I see the lovely chaos of the blogosphere a natural extension of my long-ago work on Disney's parade routes and queues. Yeah, some folks are jerks, but most folks are nice, interesting and kind, though often tired. Just like at Disney World.
That's one rumor, folks. Now go spread it. ;-)
We'll see.
I would be willing to bet on the notion that it will be heavily moderated (cough..censored...cough), and likely scrubbed of any real negative opinion about Disney. Why? Because it's company run, and I just can't see them allowing any negative talk about themselves, or even talk about other parks or off topic discussions on their own website. I think the well run fansites will still be there.
One reason they might have picked now as the time to go public is a way to combat H1N1 rumors while posting highlights of their seasonal makeovers...
I like the videos they posted about the Halloween theming in Space Mountain CA, and the new show... that's something we don't get at the other fan sites until public attendance.
Seems like some "insiders" aren't as "inside" as they used to be... ;-)
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