“Pop Candy” blogger Whitney Matheson has used four ingredients to create her own unique brand of cyber-success.

See Whitney live, as she discusses all things cyber-fame over a beer and some laughs in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district.Keep It Real

As she sips her beer at a cafe in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district, its clear that success in the blogging world hasn’t gone to Matheson’s head. The 30-year-old is wearing jeans, sneakers and a black button down shirt over a long-sleeved black t-shirt. Brushing her dark bangs away from her forehead, Matheson oozes approachability.

Her Web site mirrors this affability: Pictured wearing Converse sneakers, her coy smile welcomes readers to her daily unwrapping of pop culture. The readership responds in kind, with around 2,000 comments every 24 hours, reminding her that she is not alone in cyberspace.

But after spending time with Matheson, it’s hard to figure out where her steady stream of posts, comments and insights come from. In person, she’s economical with her words and even a little shy. But put her in front of a computer and her pop culture fanaticism comes pouring out.

Her comments page is so chockfull of reader contributions that it has taken on a life of its own, and often stretches beyond the confines of the Internet.

In fact, “Pop Candy” readers are planning to meet in Las Vegas this summer…without Whitney.

Find Your Voice

The smash hit site does, however, have humble origins: It began as a column in Matheson’s high school newspaper, and for a while after her graduation, it survived as a simple mass email to her most loyal readers.

Shortly after she started working for USA Today in 1999, Matheson told an editor about her column, and the paper decided to run “Pop Candy” weekly on its Web site as well as to launch a companion blog.

Though it initially lacked the proper software for posting comments and opinions, “Pop Candy” was USA Today’s entry into the burgeoning blogosphere. Readers increased steadily as accolades began pouring in, leading to a merger of the column and blog in 2005.

Her posts about cult TV and independent film and music won the site a 2006 Weblog Award for “Best Pop Culture Blog.” But the loyalty of her thousands of daily readers might be a clearer indicator of the blog’s success.

Alison Maxwell, her editor, considers “Pop Candy” one of the most innovative blogs on USAToday.com, with what she called “a large, dedicated, loyal and vocal audience.” With the constant reader interaction online and off, it sets the bar high for the paper’s other bloggers.

Post Incessantly

“This morning I got on at, God, 6:30, and there were already 200 comments.”

Whitney Matheson, the author of USAToday.com’s “Pop Candy,” one of the Web’s most popular entertainment and culture blogs, never seems to question her schedule. The other day, for example, she didn’t call it a night until 11 p.m., after 15 hours on the job. And she was ready to go again first thing in the morning.

For sharing her insights on everything from music and movies to comics and celebrities, Matheson is rewarded with a daily flood of tens of thousands of hits and thousands of comments. She has also developed a loyal following—both online and offline—of “Pop Candy” addicts who have labeled themselves “Whitnesses.”

Matheson’s day typically starts around 8 a.m., when she writes her first post—she averages about eight per day—on what she watched on TV the previous night and on the morning’s pop culture headlines. Within minutes, the comments begin flooding in.

An hour later, Matheson opens the “Reader of the Day” forum, a daily portrait of a reader and a hub for user interaction. And to keep her fans in the loop, she holds hotline hours when they can call her on a toll-free number. She also keeps everyone apprised of exactly what she’s up to via a constant stream of updates on Twitter, a micro-blogging tool.

Become One With Your Fans

atheson began organizing public events in connection with film and music festivals, providing her the opportunity to meet her fans in the flesh. “The first time was at a Star Wars convention in L.A.; I thought if there’s a place where my readers all hang out, it’s totally going to be at a Star Wars convention.”

The first meeting began with her sitting alone at a table in a designated bar, feeling like the new kid in school, just hoping someone would talk to her. Ultimately, more than 30 readers showed up.

That modest success inspired Matheson to begin hosting events all over the country. At a recent outing in San Diego—held at the Kansas City Barbeque (featured in the “Great Balls of Fire” scene in Top Gun)—75 fans swarmed around her. She had to draft her friends into acting as her bouncers.

“I never think anyone is going to show up, because I’m cynical and nervous,” she said. “But it’s no longer an issue of whether people will come. The issue now is whether we can find a bar that’s big enough.”
Check out Whitney’s “Pop Candy” Twitter feed, which she updates constantly to let readers in on what she’s experiencing every hour of the day.