“It’s not news, it’s Fark.”
That’s the slogan for the successful news aggregator and social networking forum Fark.com. A Weblog that allows users to submit their own humorous headlines of a large variety of news stories, some of which are then posted to the main page of the site.
What makes Fark unique, however, is that the majority of these articles are either funny, ridiculous, or what they consider to be “not news.” In other words, what the media may call “news,” they call Fark - stories that are completely unrelated to what is really going on in the world today and probably would not make any impact on the readers life if they read it or not. Take a headline from today, for example.
They describe it like this: “Fark is what fills space when mass media runs out of news. Fark is supposed to look like news… but it’s not news. It’s Fark.”
The site was started by Drew Curtis in 1997. During it’s first two years of existence, it was just a domain name with a picture of a well-endowed squirrel. According to the site’s about page, Curtis started what we now know as Fark.com in February of 1999, and during it’s first year had 50,000 page views. In it’s second active year it had one million page views.
Fark is also known to be highly profitable, getting all of its revenue from advertising deals and “TotalFark” members, who pay for additonal access to all of the site’s submitted headlines. In May 2007, NPR did a story on how Curtis is “Making Money off of Goofy News,” which outlines how he reads hundreds of news articles a day and carries his laptop everywhere with him to continue approving and editing submitted headlines.
Also in May of last year, Curtis published It’s Not News, It’s FARK: How the Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News.
Fark.com gives those who constantly read the news online a place to go and get it all. While some of it may be considered “crap,” at least you might get a laugh out of the headline. The site does provide links to breaking news stories, and if you spend enough time reading it you can probably get a pretty good gauge of what’s going on in the country (and the world) each day.
Curtis has taken the news aggregator and turned it on its head. But while he keeps the site running, it stays successful because of the growing number of avid “farkers” who submit headlines and contribute greatly to the site. Fark.com is truly one of a kind as it is even becoming influential with the mainstream media that it mocks.
So if you’re ever looking for a laugh and a place to read a lot of (not) news, check out Fark.com.
