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?)

Blogging for Journalism

Mindy McAdamsUniversity of Floridamindymcadams.com