News sites have been wringing their hands about whether blogging is journalism and whether newspapers should let their reporters blog.
They’re missing the most important point about blogging. Suddenly, millions of their readers now have better-managed web sites that are better integrated with the Web than any online news Web site.
I’m not saying that the Tribune Company should rush out and buy WordPress for their newspapers. But the blogosphere has evolved into a sophisticated network that online publishers should emulate and build upon. I’ve been discussing the elements of this network in this series:
- RSS feeds put your headlines on readers’ desktops, especially the most influential 1% of Web users — the people who can drive traffic to your site. Don’t worry that you can’t control it or measure it. Trust people to find you.
- Comments let your reader participate directly in the reporting process, amplifying, correcting, and just blowing off steam. Letters to the editor and separate bulletin boards now seem absurd.
- Archives should no longer be in a separate database. Your Web site should be your archives, which should be free and open to anyone who wants to read or link to your news. Why shouldn’t readers be able to search your archives using Google? Think before you answer that question.
- Trackback points to people who point to you, creating context for every news story you publish, and giving back traffic to people who are pointing their readers to you.
- Your community should be the focus of your site. And you should be integrating your site with bloggers and other sites in your community.
Blogs have changed the way people use use the Web and the way they create Web sites. The online news industry has the most to learn and the most to gain from thinking like bloggers. Whether news sites blog, or whether they accept blogging as journalism is immaterial.
Why can’t a newspaper be more like a blog?
Barry Parr just concluded his “Why can’t a newspaper be more like a blog?” series. Over the last week or so, Barry has taken his “deliberately provocative” headline and explored how online news publishers could learn much from blogs. While…
Another manifesto/rant for UrbanVancouver and how newspaper should be using RSS, blogs, etc.
From MediaSavvy: Why can’t a newspaper be more like a blog? Conclusion: RSS feeds put your headlines on readers’ desktops, especially the most influential 1% of Web users — the people who can drive traffic to your site. Don’t worry…
I wish I said that …
… oh, wait a minute. I did.
• Barry Parr’s Media Savvy: Why can’t a newspaper be more like a blog?News sites have been wringing their hands about whether blogging is journalism and whether newspapers should let their reporters blog.
They…
Fit to Blog
Via HyperGene, a tip on an excellent open letter from MediaSavvy to the mainstream media which asks Why can’t a newspaper be more like a blog? They’re missing the most important…
Web sites as applications
There’s been a lot of talk lately about “improving” the UI of the Web. Mostly by trying to add standards for “rich” clients. Gruber has come back with an equally thoughtfull, and in my opinion, correct analysis of the Web&…
(Epi)Centrist designers
Leave it to the folks at 37signals to come with up a great name and method for Web design – epicenter-based design. This is something that I, and probably a lot of designers, have been doing, both consciously and subconsciously for a while. This is a g…
Foxes & Dragons News machine outfoxed by bloggers;=)
That’s a pretty entertaining story. I love this:
But unlike Limbaugh and O’Reilly, who frequently replace research and reason with rage and rhetoric, Air America’s hosts are armed to the teeth with hard, up-to-the second facts to support their relentless Bush bashing. Their sources? Blogs. And the blogging bloggers who blog them.
Blogging is now sufficiently mainstream that most decent journlists know something about it and many good ones do it. But most don’t really respect anything that not printed on woodpulp.
Excellent series, Barry. I hope you’ve emailed the web team of every major newspaper with an outline.
What Newspapers Can Learn From Blogs
Barry Parr has written an excellent series called Why Can’t a Newspaper be More Like a Blog?. He outlines very well why I am so frustrated with online news sites, so much that I now only check Google News. This…
Newspapers denial
You would think that the newspaper industry would be on the bandwagon of the internet, considering the number of media sources that are available now a days. Instead, I am finding as search for feeds for Pro-…