What this blog will and won’t be about. 1
Posted by Marcus Warren on 21 Jun 2007 at 16:45
Tags: Media, Blogging, Journalism, Telegraph, editor, website
We seem to be spending a lot of time and effort on telling the rest of the media business about what we’ve been up to here in Victoria of late. And rightly so. I think, however, that we should be doing more to confide in our web audience, millions strong as it is.
This blog is a backstage pass to Telegraph.co.uk
So here we go. I name this blog “An Editor’s Blog”. God bless her and all who sail in her.
It’s AN editor’s blog, rather than THE editor’s blog even though I am now THE editor of Telegraph.co.uk. To my ears the definite article before the word “blog” makes the whole sound needlessly portentous. And I have to say the brand, “Editor’s Blog”, is now so commonplace it’s in danger of being devalued.
The BBC’s recently marked its first birthday. (Kate Adie did not join in the celebrations, though.) Many happy returns by the way. Reuters has one. So does Sky. On the West Coast the LA Times records the evolution of a website although judging by the frequency with which it is updated, it’s not evolving that fast. And that’s not to mention many of the other blogs on new media (is it still new, for heaven’s sake?) which, I hope, already adorn the blog roll on the right hand of your screen. I suppose some of them are wannabe, would-be or ex-editors’ blogs or even blogs by better editors than many of the traditional media variety.
And then there’s Shane’s very successful existing blog which also qualifies as an editor’s blog. Mine will certainly not supplant his. It will rather complement Shane’s and enhance and enrich your Telegraph blogging users experience (to use the sort of language I hate) .
Its intention is to aim for a slightly more mainstream audience. And also to lift the veil on what we are up to on the site. And I don’t just want to confront you with faits accomplis and then ask: “so what do you make of that then?” Instead, I hope both to provide you with a running commentary on what we’re doing and what’s coming up and engage in a dialogue with you all about you and the site.
I won’t be blogging on My.Telegraph, much as I love and respect this amazing laboratory which we opened for business last month. I’ll probably expand on the reasons for that in a future post. And I’ll also explain the back story behind the blog’s name “Up To A Point”, if you can’t guess what it is already.
I’ll also be aiming to observe the minimum-of-three-posts-a-week-or-it’s-the-archive-for-you Telegraph blogging rule. If I don’t, I expect Shane or Ceri to give me short shrift.
Posted by Marcus Warren on 21 Jun 2007 at 16:45
June 21, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Go Marcus! Blog on!
June 22, 2007 at 11:58 am
only thing I’d add to his Blogging Manifesto is that bloggers don’t usually write about writing stuff, they just tend to get on with it.
Funny comment on there – “If your aim was to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that waffle can be elevated to an art form, then go no further. You’ve gained at least one (possibly two) converts to that view already.”