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Blogging for Journalism
Mindy McAdamsUniversity of Florida
“We’re in a battle every day for traffic. People are very, very sporadic
on how they use the Web and the sites they go to.”
Jim Brady, vice president and executive editor, washingtonpost.com (AP report, Oct. 5, 2007)
Washingtonpost.com has about 80 blogs.
Sports and religion blogs have proved popular
with readers.
AP report, Oct. 5, 2007. Attributed to Jim Brady, vice president and executive editor, washingtonpost.com
“The right question is, ‘How can I spend more time with my blog?’ … Rather than assume
that blogging is an add-on… taking away time
from ‘serious’ journalism, how about treating it as journalism
itself ?”
John Robinson, editor, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
Robinson usually posts to his blog once a day, every weekday.
“Every journalist group I’ve spoken with
about blogging has stopped short when I say we don’t edit our staff
blogs. The editors are more concerned
about libel than about the proper use of it’s and its. But editing is editing.
No good copy editor would stop at editing only for typos and
grammar.”John Robinson, editor, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
Why staff blogs need not be edited
• Editing slows the process.• Editing promotes uniformity and
conformity. [Hmm, bad for blogging.]• Trust your staff. Journalists know what
libel is, what bad taste is.• The cultures of the Web and the
newspaper are different.
John Robinson, editor, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
Gutierrez spends about three hours a day, most
days, on her blog. That includes
writing, editing and monitoring the comments.
It also takes time to research all the links she includes.
Bridget Gutierrez is an education reporter and blogger for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Sometimes it takes 15 minutes. Sometimes, if I’m
live-blogging, it takes four hours.
Or four days.”
Jamie Gumbrecht is a lifestyle columnist and blogger for The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
Community blogsvs. (?)
journalist blogs
Issues we hear about often
• Comments can be nasty• No editor! Shocking!• Links to outside sites, and to outside blogs• It’s just a column on a Web page• I don’t have time to update it• No one reads my blog
Important questions
• Are you reading other bloggers (outside your newspaper)?
• Are you linking out?• Are you reading the comments on your
blog?• Are you responding to comments?• What tone do you take in responses?
Important questions (2)
• Are there ads on your blog?• Are you tracking the stats for your blog?• What do the stats tell you?• How often do you post?• Do you understand SEO for blogs?• Is your blog too ugly?
There are 245 journalist blogs
on The CyberJournalist List.(Is yours there?)
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