Blogging For Journalists / from SreeTips.com

THREE QUESTIONS for Tim Porter, veteran news guy, who blogs at First Draft ("Newspapering, Readership & Relevance in a Digital Age") at TimPorter.com. More about him here: http://www.timporter.com/resume.html

1. Why and when did you start to blog?
A: I started blogging on Dec. 4, 2002 with the somewhat arrogantly named Quality Manifesto. I had been out of newspapers for a couple years, working in Internet start-ups and, after the dot-com bust, building a house in Mexico. When the time came to go back to work, I began looking around at newspapers again, thinking I could bring some of the entrepreneurial, innovative culture I had found in start-ups back into newsrooms (which I had left primarily for the lack of the very same thing). I found, in "reading in" on papers after a couple of years off the grid, so to speak, that the cultural problems that  left me dissatisified had worsened. I thought I might have something to add to the nascent discussion that as arising about changing newspapers and helping to them prepare for digital future, but I had no real place to say it. So I blogged. I downloaded a free (at the time) copy of Movable Type, endured the teeth-pulling (at the time) installation procedure and began.

2. What have you learned (about your work, journalism or yourself) since you began to blog?
A: What have I learned? Too much to bang out here (from the Red Carpet Club in O’Hare), but a couple of things I can say quickly.

• I didn’t know anywhere as near as much as I thought I did when managed newsrooms.
• There were really a lot of smart people interested in media and journalism who worked far outside of newsrooms.
• That barrier to entry to publishing had been lowered to zero and that that forever changed the business and editorial model of journalism.
• That voice, truth and authenticity — enabled by technology — was powerful.
• That I had much to learn about journalism. (Read Jay Rosen’s somewhat embarrassing piece on my "education".

3. Should journalists blog?
A: Of course. I have a much longer answer, but since time is short I’ll point you toward this post on First Draft: Blogging the Beat. It contains this link to a PowerPoint presentation on blogging for journalists.

Read more Tim Porter at TimPorter.com. 


3 QUESTIONS series archived here.

THREE QUESTIONS for Dan Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" and widely-published tech journalist, who blogs at DanPink.com. More about him here: http://danpink.com/aboutdp.php

1. Why and when did you start to blog?
A: i actually had a blog in 2002 called Just One Thing.  so i blogged before it was cool and after it was trite.  i do it largely to test out ideas, get things off my chest, and keep folks up to date on what i’m doing and working on.

2. What have you learned (about your work, journalism or yourself) since you began to blog?
A: i’ve learned that i actually don’t have an opinion on everything — and that i shouldn’t try to muster one.  i’ve learned that a blog can be an enormously useful and searchable database of what i’ve thought and read at particular moments.  and i’ve learned — or, more accurately, reaffirmed — that i prefer getting paid for my writing!