At Toronto Metroblogging we don’t post very often (but try to as much as possible) and there’s only a just a few of us. We all come from different backgrounds, young, old, students and even “grown ups”. The posts vary from current news to just plain old fun around the city. Most of our readership comes from other Metroblogging cities around the world that stop by the Toronto site to see what’s happening in our City. Some cities include Manila, Hong Kong, London, NYC, LA, Montreal and Vancouver. I know we are no contest for some of the “big gun” Toronto blog sites out there but I just wanted to put the word out that we’re around and if you looking for something to add to your Toronto blog roll come check us out.

http://toronto.metblogs.com/

It’s been around for some time now and has a great cross section of demographics from Toronto. However, someone needs to wrestle control of it from Rannie because he has no time to update it.

While you look down that long list of blogs, you’ll find your ’subcultures’ of bloggers, like the moms, blue collar workers and queers.

But does this utopia of Toronto blogs work?

I did a stint over on Torontoist as their queer blogger for a couple months and I have to admit, I felt alienated (David, you tried hard to pull me into the fold but I just didn’t feel it), because I’m no hipster, and I didn’t venture out into those boundaries mentioned. As a result, I felt my voice on the blog was ignored or uninteresting.

Take one of the most popular Toronto gay blogs right now: Thickslab. Smart, intelligent, sometimes not safe for work. And most would find that outright sexuality alienating. Much like I would find reading about Toronto child rearing rather dull.

I think the diversity it there, you just have to go deep if you want to see it. Thing is, most people don’t venture past their own blogrolls.

Perhaps setting up workshops and tools for NGOs, rec centres, and other orgs on how to get their message out on the web (whether through blogging or otherwise) is the first step the community of bloggers in Toronto should take in order to help create a more vibrant and diverse web community in the city.

As you’re currently doing something similar for the Filipino Centre, might you have some ideas on how this can be reproduced in other parts of the city?

As for BlogTO and Torontoist, the best option would be to spread themselves wide as far as they can — but without spreading themselves thin. As I’ve said before, no blog can be all things to everyone.

If there’s a demand for an info source that’s not being met, something will rise to meet that demand. You can count on it.

I think a lot of folks in the 20-35 bracket are interested in picking up their news from NOW/Eye/Torontoist/blogTO and maybe even some of ‘em are hipsters. Go to Spin Gallery for one of their parties and you will see hipsters.

As a writer for blogTO, I’ve been to a meeting or two and I see a lot of slightly-nerdy, college-graduated 25-30 year-olds. Granted I’m generalizing a bit but you get the idea.

First of all Joey, I want to thank you for starting this discussion. Whether people agree with you or not, this was obviously an issue that needed to be brought up, and I’m glad you were able to do so with tact and humor at the same time.

A few thoughts:

While both blogTO and Torontoist make a valiant effort to cover events outside the downtown ‘hipster’ core (I’ve personally made a conscious effort to cover things like the Arts Etobicoke Gallery opening, urbanNOISE in Rexdale, and Ribfest in Centennial Park as some examples of things happening outside the core), in essence, their bread and butter is the ‘hipsters’ you refer to.

I don’t fault them for that: after all, like any sound business, Toronto blogs have to cater to the needs of their audience. So instead of blogTO and Torontoist being consciously geared towards the “Yeah, that’s me” audience you mention above, I feel that they have become that way partly because those ‘hipsters’ are the people that come to the site, and they ask for and want more of the same…hence shaping the direction of the blog.

Me? I can’t answer a single yes to the questions you present, and I’m very much what you mentioned later in your article: an Etobicoke-dweller that works in an office, has a Costco membership, shops at Harry Rosen. Many of the people I grew up with fall into a similar demographic. The one thing I’ve noticed, however, is that these same people turn to places like blogTO and Torontoist when they want to break out of the mold, to do something different this coming Saturday night. So while the Toronto blogs right now may cater to a certain slice of Toronto, they still act as important resources (especially with things like the restaurant and cafe listings over on blogTO) for people that fall outside that slice.

But back to the main point: you’re absolutely right that Toronto needs more. There is, I believe, a lot of space (and perhaps lots of demand) for a blog that focuses solely on an area such as Rexdale (where I grew up). What I’m not sure is that there are resources: people that are willing to put in the time and money to get something like that started, and then to maintain it as well. If those resources can be found and mobilized, then I would gladly welcome a Rexdale, or a Thorncliffe Park, or a Little Weston Village-focused blog.

So now we ask the question: where do we find these people, these resources, to make this a reality? And until we do, isn’t it best that we try and diversify what currently exists (like Torontoist and blogTO) to make them richer for people outside their target audience without alienating their current readers?

I discovered blogTO through friends, all of whom are (like me) definitely over 30 and live all over Toronto, not just downtown.

Thanks for starting this discussion; it’s been an interesting read.

crap.

In his entry We Need More Toronto Blogs, Accordion Guy calls out popular local blogs that focus too heavily on the local Toronto hipster crowd. Accordion Guy writes that this demo is mostly white, under 30, and only attend events that take place in an …

Good god. Glad I somehow missed that take on post modern.

Uh, yeah, that’s it, nothing to add to the conversation particularily.

I would definitely consider this here blog to have the same kind of voice/imaginary reader as BlogTO and Torontoist, particularly for its geographical focus.

I’m a Beach guy, and only make it west of Bathurst occasionally as a tourist.

When I stop to think about it from the geographical perspective, I’m a little ticked that the two blogs mentioned identify as Toronto blogs, yet (along with Eye and Now) spend so much time focused on a part of town that practically doesn’t exist in my own mental map of the city. But that’s more a quibble with the branding than with execution. Change the names to WestTorontoist and BlogWTO and complaint evaporates.

So I don’t read those blogs. And I don’t know if there’s enough stuff to blog about going on this side of the river that I’d read a blog that did have that focus. My neighbourhood, and the surrounding ones that I tend to visit, are pretty well served by very local free bi-weekly newspapers.