The Independent’s blogs: must do better

Thursday, 28 December 2006, 10:55

Remember the debate about the dubious quality of some British national newspaper blogs? It raged back in October and November, centering on Andrew Grant-Adamson’s analysis of the degree of other bloggers’ engagement with the blogs published by the Times and the Telegraph.

The Independent’s experiment with blogging has only been around for just over a month now, but I think it’s time move it to the to the central place of (dis)honour of the “blogwagon” hall of shame. Six links from five blogs after a month is a pretty poor showing for an organisation with the resources and traffic of a national newspaper web site.

One of those links hit the nail on the head: The Indy’s blogs are a bit lame. Case in point: One of their blogs seems to be a technology blog sponsored by Sony. Here’s the introductory post from 21 November:

Welcome to Sony’s technology blog. Technology moves on so fast at the moment – what with new formats, increased capacity, and improvements in sound and picture quality, it’s hard to keep up.

Joining in a blog like this one is a great way to keep abreast of what’s happening to your favourite gadgets now and in the future. For example, do you know when the government turns off the analogue TV signal in your area? Are you ready for the digital revolution? Is your TV high-definition (HD) compatible? How will HD change your experience of watching TV?

Each week we’ll pose a new question. This week: What are the benefits of HD? Get blogging with your thoughts now, we want to hear from you!

Since then there have been a grand total of three posts in that section. But insufficient posting is only part of the Indy’s blog problem. The more serious issue is tone.

The Indy insists on continuing to talk down to its readers from on high. Why would anyone “join in a blog” that addresses its audience in such a patronising tone? Yay! Lucky us! We get to respond to untimely questions set by an (unnamed) Indy journalist.

Alternatively, we could go over to Engadget or some other blog that provides timely news about new gizmos and offers a debate about their merits provided by a knowledgeable base of regular readers. That’s what the readers are actually doing. Since the Indy management seems to be skeptical of the business case for online journalism, it’s worth pointing out that the distribution of the growing online advertising pie will probably follow readership down the long tail of online journalism.

So what should they be doing instead? The point of newspaper blogging is to engage with the community of readers. The sad irony is that the Independent, with its emphasis on creating an “viewspaper”, is ideally positioned to expand its influence and market its product by engaging the debate in the blogosphere, but is squandering this opportunity with its half-hearted online efforts.

The Indy’s growing print readership buys the paper for its robust political line and would probably relish the opportunity to get involved in discussions on the important issues the paper tries to raise. The paper’s journalists might be astonished to realise that some of their readers are highly knowledgeable and could move forward the stories it alone seems to emphisise.

Maybe this is something the paper’s columnists should remember the next time they decide to have an ignorant bash at the blogosphere: blogging effectively actually takes some skill.

There are probably people in the Independent newsroom who have these skills. Some of them are probably blogging effectively on their own time. The stars may not be were you expect them: They might be the student on work experience or some freelance sub who is only in a few days a week.

Simon Kelner should find these people quick and get them to sort out his paper’s cringeworthy effort at blogging.

Entry Filed under: Blogs, Independent

12 Comments Add some more of your own

1. Médiablog&hellip | 18 January 2007 at 2249

a brit (online) lapokban megjeleő blogokról, most újabb torzszülött kerülhet be gyűjteményébe. Az Independent szinte minden lehetséges hibát elkövetett blogjai indításakor, ezeket Martin Stable részletesen elemzi is. Valamennyi hiba alapja az, hogy az Independent illetékesei nem értik a blogolás lényegét. Ahelyett, hogy találtak volna néhány elkötelezett, lelkes bloggert, kötelező feladatnak kiosztották valakiknek a blogok írását. Az
2. Jobs in journalism, news &hellip | 28 December 2006 at 1856

Best of the rest Indy blogs: must do better Blogger flees town after branding it a s***-hole BSkyB buys 365 Media Group Newspapers and Cricket Australia lock horns over clip usage Internet to take more newspaper ad money in 2007
3. Wordblog » Blog Arc&hellip | 2 January 2007 at 1110

[...] The best thing that can be said about The Independent’s entry into newspaper blogging is that they are wasting very little time on it. Martin Stabe took a look just after Christmas and reached the conclusion that the paper’s “cringeworthy effort at blogging” needed sorting out. He was almost too kind. [...]
4. Martin Stabe » Five&hellip | 2 January 2007 at 1235

[...] Andrew Grant-Adamson thinks my assessment of the Independent’s half-hearted blogging effort was “almost too kind” and neatly summarises the long-running debate about the purpose of mainstream news sites’ blogs into five tests for newspaper blogs to help editors avoid similarly poor results. [...]
5. Martin Stabe » Why &hellip | 9 January 2007 at 1458

[...] Alan Morrison has a great post that neatly summarises the common strand underlying the things Andrew Grant-Adamson (repeatedly) Kevin Anderson, Paul Bradshaw and I (not to mention loads of other people) have been saying over the past few months about established media’s sometimes clumsy efforts at tacking social media “stuff” onto their existing publishing business: [D]on’t just bolt blogging or video onto your existing publishing model, because if you do you’re missing half of the point: contributing to these new media is a lot about having a conversation with their readers, NOT just megaphoning down to them, as per the traditional model. [...]
6. Charles on… anythin&hellip | 12 January 2007 at 2114

[...] Via Greenslade to Martin Stabe and Andrew Grant-Adamson, The Independent has a blog which is so awful (think cheap: think getting a free Typepad account and then possibly forgetting the password, or not reminding people to update it, or possibly not having enough – or any? – machines capable of running an operating system introduced in 2001) that the kindest thing would be to bin them and start again. [...]
7. Embarassing Dad - the Ind&hellip | 13 January 2007 at 2006

[...] I’m a bit late to this one, with Charles Arthur, Andrew Grant-Adamson, Martin Stabe; and Roy Greenslade all drawing collective gasps and sniffled laughter, but just in case there is anyone interested in the UK media that reads this blog but none of those above… [...]
8. BuzzMachine » Blog &hellip | 13 January 2007 at 2256

[...] : Meanwhile, the Guardian and others are delighting in making fun of the pathetic blogging effort of the oddly fuddy-duddyist newspaper in the UK, the Independent. Says Roy Greenslade: Day after day nothing appears on its blog and the single entry this year turns out to be an updated posting of no consequence. For a paper that likes to be known as a viewspaper it seems rather short of views – or news, or anything at all – on its blog. [...]
9. mathewingram.com/media &r&hellip | 14 January 2007 at 0303

[...] In a previous post, Andrew notes that “the best thing that can be said about The Independent’s entry into newspaper blogging is that they are wasting very little time on it.” Touche. Martin Stabe has also written about the somewhat, er… lame-rific blogging done by the Indy, saying that “the Independent’s experiment with blogging has only been around for just over a month now, but I think it’s time move it to the central place of (dis)honour in the “blogwagon” hall of shame.” [...]
10. Martin Stabe » A di&hellip | 25 March 2007 at 1052

[...] if the Independent’s short-lived experiment with blogging is anything to go by, there is, of course no guarantee that this approach will be successful. The [...]
11. Brian | 10 September 2007 at 1653

Best written comment I’ve read in ages. If only the general standard of news blogs was up to this, we’d all be reading everyone…!
Thank you.
12. The viewspaper that's dev&hellip | 16 October 2007 at 0937

[...] been teasing The Independent about its pathetic excursion into blogging. As both Grant-Adamson and Martin Stabe were quick to note, the Indy’s promise hasn’t been matched by performance. Day after day nothing [...]

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