The man behind 'Word on the Street' – Brian Cabell | ABC 10 Feature

MARQUETTE — He runs the top news blog in Marquette County, but few know the person behind the keyboard. The man who runs the highly acclaimed, and sometimes controversial, Word on the Street is Brian Cabell, and he’s the center focus of this week’s #ABC10Feature.

Working in the media is fast paced, but for Marquette’s top freelance journalist, life is easy as the waves by his beachside house.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Cabell. “I have no bosses. I have no schedule. I can do what I want. I can write what I want.”

“There’s about 25,000-30,000 people who read the blog every month. About 100,000 page views.”

All this with a population of only about 65,000 people.

“I don’t have to worry about what someone might say; what a business might say; an advertiser might say; a news director might say.”

He is his own news director; but he had to become one before he could reach this worry–free existence, “I spent about 40 years in (television) news. First as a reporter/anchor/producer, doing everything. Then I got into reporting.”

After that came CNN, where Cabell was a correspondent for 14 years. Then he was a news director in the U.P. It was a life built within the hustle and bustle TV news that shifted suddenly into a new medium.

“I never really felt comfortable with the internet when the internet first started, and yet, ironically enough, here I am on the internet alone,” said Cabell.

And what’s more ironic – the internet is providing the comfort.

“It’s a very simple, easy medium; and it’s immediate. I think we can all concede, it’s the future of news.”

Cabell is something of a renaissance man, and he sees a movement coming for news as we know it.

“I think TV news and newspapers have a somewhat limited lifespan,” said Cabell. “I don’t know whether we’re talking 20, 30, 40 years. But there’s no doubt the internet is a better business model.”

A relatively new model at that. With no guidelines, trouble can be easy to find. “Have I been sued? No, not since I’ve started doing this,” said Cabell. “And I don’t intend to. It’s kind of a wild west medium still. Just about anything goes. I try to not be irresponsible, and I think so far, I’ve succeeded in that.”

“What I’m doing is not a job. I’m doing what I love. I’m doing what I think there’s a need for. I kind of fill in the cracks for where the main stream media miss stories.”

MARQUETTE — A local blog has been captivating a reading audience of thousands. Brian Cabell is the man behind the popular website ‘Word on the Street’, a blog with a mix of news, gossip, and controversy. He often has leads and sources unknown to other media outlets.

Meet the man behind the blog, and learn how this one man operation acts as a checks and balances for U.P. news media. ‘Who is Brian Cabell’ airs Thursday on #ABC10Feature at 5:30 p.m. Tune in.