Posts filed under “Blogging”
So, you have a blog. Now what? Vol. 3: quantity matters
Quality always matters, but with blogging so does quantity. The more often you blog, the more traffic you’ll get. It’s that simple. Someone who blogs a few times a month will get a lot less traffic than someone who blogs a few times a week. Both of them will get less traffic than someone who [...]
So, you have a blog. Now what? Vol. 2: community building
A key part of a successful blog (and getting traffic) is building a strong community. Check out vol. 2 for how to get people to read your blog. Getting people to read your blog is not enough, however. You look at the best blogs and you’ll notice that there are lots of comments after each [...]
So, you have a blog. Now what? Vol. 1
This is the start of a new series on the JI where I discuss tips on how to blog. These will usually be short, down-and-dirty tips. If you’ve just started a blog, you’re probably wondering, “how do I get people to read my blog?” Sure, you can tell your friends and colleagues about it. You can e-mail [...]
On moderating comments
I’m working on some content today for beatblogging.org about the moderation of user comments on stories and blogs. I need your help. How does you news organization handle these moderating duties? Are your comments moderated or unmoderated? If they are moderated, who does it? Do your writers and bloggers interact with posters? What has worked [...]
Newspapers need to take responsibility for the quality of conversations
“I’m convinced that newspapers need to rise up and take responsibility not just for the quality of the news, but for the quality of the conversation,” – Monia Guzman. Instead of complaining that comments sections on newspaper Web sites are worthless, newspapers need to start actively cultivating conversations. The Web is about community, and communities [...]
It’s all about the community, stupid
At BeatBlogging.Org I have noticed that many of our most successful beat bloggers have strong communities around their beats. Community can trump content, but the best sites combine great content with a great community. Community is what makes people want to come back to a Web site over and over again. Ask an active Twitter [...]
Today’s Thought: No reason to ask if blogging is journalism
Asking if blogging is journalism is like asking if desktop publishing is journalism. The answer is sometimes. Both are just publishing platforms. Nothing more. Nothing less. At BeatBlogging.Org you’ll find many examples of journalists using blogging and other online tools to take their beat reporting to the next level. But most blogs are much truer [...]
Today’s Thought: The news hole
Can you imagine tailoring your reporting to fit a space dictated by a medium and not by the actual story? Unreal. Imagine a world in which you write as much or as little as needed. Have one photo to go with a story? Have 500? Want to link to other sites, documents, databases and content? [...]
I’m not a storyteller — I’m an information provider
A lot of journalists got into this business because they like to tell stories. I think that’s one fundamental reason why so many journalists have a hard time adapting to the changing news landscape. For me, it was never about the story — it was always about the information and news. So, if the format [...]
Blogging allows for reporters to report more, troll for comments less
Over at BeatBlogging.org, I have a post about how “Beat Blogging allows reporters to concentrate on core reporting”: When writing for the print edition, reporters often have to spend large amounts of time getting “man on the street” quotes from random people to flush out stories. Not with blogging. That’s what the comment section of [...]