Dads Get Driven Out at Babble
Posted on 13. Apr, 2010 by Brian Reid in gender equity, media
If you are quick, and you go over to Babble.com *right now* and look at the top of your browser, you’ll see the site’s tagline: “The Magazine and Community for a New Generation of Parents.” If you’re not quick, it might not be there. As you’ll see when you look at the page, Babble.com is now “… for a new generation of moms.” And thus the most promising parenting site of the past decade put up the white flag and totally mom-ified.
If you’ve been mucking around on the Internet long enough, you may have stumbled on Babble in its early days. The site, launched in 2006, was designed as an edgy, anything-goes kind of site, without the soft-focus and inane topics that tend to dominate parenting mags. It was the epicenter of the hipster parent trend, and though it could be at time as insufferably cool as an ironic tattoo, it was — thank goodness — different. But now it’s not. It’s just another parenting site for moms. According to Jeremy Adam Smith, the new mom-focus goes beyond just the appearance on the home page: at least one dad writer has been let go from a place that used to be a haven for smart fathers.
But that’s not all. Per Jeremy’s post on his Facebook page:
Also, Babble’s early brand was built on the idea that gay and lesbian parents are also parents. In fact, I once pitched an idea for an essay to Babble on what straight parents can learn from gay and lesbian parents-to which the editor (now departed) somewhat haughtily replied, “We don’t recognize a distinction between gay and straight parents.” Uh, OK, I guess that might sound sort of progressive in the same way “I don’t recognize race” once sounded kind of progressive before most thinking people realized it was delusional. Regardless, now Babble is strictly a site for white straight moms who sport fading tattoos. And I’m not even sure about the tattoos.
At some point, I have to bow to the powerful market research (and even more power market forces) that makes publications like this shy away from what I see as areas of huge parenting growth. I’m sure they have their reasons. But — for the record — if you’re a marketer and want to reach me (I spend a fair amount on kid stuff, for what it’s worth), don’t bother with Babble. I’m not really welcome there anymore.
(Hat tip to Jason Sperber)
12 Responses to “Dads Get Driven Out at Babble”
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14. Apr, 2010
[...] I have a news week like we’ve had this week — with AT&T poking fun at fathers and Babble going to a single-gender focus — it’s a reminder that just because a PR firm has some dads on its pitch list (or even [...]
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20. Apr, 2010
[...] Sharp-eyed commenter Chris (of The Daddy Doctrines) noticed that parenting website Babble.com — which quietly changed its tagline from “for a new generation of parents” to “for a new generation of moms” last week — has done an about face, and the language about “parents” has returned. [...]
Lisa Duggan
13. Apr, 2010
Do not despair. My company is working on the 2011 launch of a new parenting magazine that is all-inclusive. The two principals: me, a working mother and my partner, a stay at home father of three.
I assure you a level playing field.
Chris (@tessasdad)
13. Apr, 2010
Well, at least they got rid of the “parents” part of their tagline since they weren’t actually interested in parents, but only moms —- kind of like Parents magazine. I went on their site (which is atrocious to navigate because every click triggers a pop up to a quiz or some other crap) and nothing listed on their sitemap for dads at all. I would rather them drop the pretense of being a parenting magazine/website, when they are really only interested in developing a mom readership.
On a brighter note, I have found some sites actively seeking content by and for dads:
* http://www.betterwaymoms.com has a dad contributor/writer on their site and has a nice dad section.
* http://www.newparent.com/baby/what-new-dads-really-need/ contacted me out of the blue a month ago asking for a guest post. They’ve had other dad bloggers post as well.
* http://www.easybabylife.com/chris-singer.html - I applied with this site to be a contributing writer and was accepted back in November. Up until then, they didn’t have a lot of content from dads, but she loved the idea and it has worked well.
@Lisa - Looking forward to your magazine launch. Keep us posted on that
Brian Reid
13. Apr, 2010
Echoing Chris: Lisa, can’t wait to see what you have cooked up!
Lisa Duggan
13. Apr, 2010
Chris, thanks for the tips on those sites and I promise to keep everyone informed of our progress.
PS We plan to include a centerfold — of the hottest SAHDs in the country — so you might want to start hitting the gym again.
RobMonroe
14. Apr, 2010
Ugh. It looked recently like they were going more and more in that direction. I think that’s why I stick to individual blogs more or less, over the group think. Chris is spot on about Parents magazine - ticks me off every month. I would cancel the subscription but my MIL has up paid up for like three years.
Playstead
14. Apr, 2010
Not surprising. Dads get the shaft again. Is it that dads don’t read it — or they have no idea how to market good content to dads? I wrote fatherhood columns for MSN and got tons of emails from guys that were desperate for content about fatherhood. The eyeballs are out there …
chris (@tessasdad)
18. Apr, 2010
@Lisa - LOL! Nice, but I’ll just take myself out of contention right now. Maybe I could compete in a “Mentally Sexy” SAHD competition - picture of me holding the baby while vacuuming or something like that!
Chris Routly
20. Apr, 2010
It looks like they’ve switched back to “for a new generation of parents”.
Backlash?
Brian Reid
20. Apr, 2010
Chris -
You’re right! Going to have to update …
— Brian
Andrea
14. May, 2010
cool post. sad post.
We started a parenting site recently - last thanksgiving - with the explicit goal of 50/50 participation dads & moms. We’re currently at about 30% dads. We’ve been doing everything we can think of to let dads know about us - finding awesome dad blogs like this one, hand-picked invites to fantastic fathers in egalitarian relationships, non-sexist blog content, gender-neutral words & colors, etc - and 30% is the best we’ve been doing so far…
Women in egalitarian relationships seem to be twice as likely to join our site. We ask why and they tell us that maybe their guys don’t like to read/write about parenting. But, clearly, dad bloggers like you would disagree with that.
What are we missing? (http://parentsguild.com)