Blogging for Journalism

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Blogging for Journalism

• Courtesy of
• Mindy McAdams
• University of Florida

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Were 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)
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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
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(No Transcript)
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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.
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Robinson usually posts to his blog once a day,
every weekday.
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(No Transcript)
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Every journalist group Ive spoken with about
blogging has stopped short when I say we dont
edit our staff blogs. The editors are more
concerned about libel than about the proper use
of its 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.
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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.
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(No Transcript)
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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
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(No Transcript)
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Sometimes it takes 15 minutes. Sometimes, if Im
live-blogging, it takes four hours. Or four
days.
Jamie Gumbrecht is a lifestyle columnist and
blogger for The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
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Community blogsvs. (?)journalist blogs
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Issues we hear about often

• Comments can be nasty
• No editor! Shocking!
• Links to outside sites, and to outside blogs
• Its just a column on a Web page
• I dont have time to update it
• No one reads my blog

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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?

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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?

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There are 245 journalist blogson The
CyberJournalist List.(Is yours there?)
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Blogging for Journalism

• Mindy McAdams
• University of Florida
• mindymcadams.com