Learning by blog

So far, creating this blog is a real learning experience for me. It’s my first foray into blogs, and it’s been learn as I go exercise.

I’m learning some new skills, and honing some old ones. I’m learning to become more succinct in my writing, and produce short pieces to tight deadlines. The blog has helped me develop my approach to writing and made me focus on completing pieces to a publishable standard. The more I explore blogging the more I want to do. There are already ideas forming for new blogs that I can create, and I’ll use them develop my skills as well.

Before blogs only a privileged few were able to have their ideas, opinions or work published. Now anyone with access to a computer can produce a blog. Only a minority of the millions of blog creators will produce something that captures an audience, but the sheer number of blogs means that there will always be quality blogs buried in the blogosphere - they just have to be found.

Researching for the posts I have written has forced me to examine my own opinion on the issues I have been blogging about. I found I’m in favour of free information and news; I don’t like, but accept the need for, advertising; I like the anonymity that blogs and the internet can provide; I think the traditional media need to embrace the new environment – the Long Tail is here. Any future blogs I create will reflect these opinions.

If you've found any of the above posts interesting, why not leave a comment. This blog will be hiatus while I consider what to do next in the blogging world, but I'll be checking back from time to time. Thanks for reading.

Publishing newspapers online

The Huffington Post has turned five, and is enjoying huge successes. The Huffington Post began in 2005 as an online news site, a twenty first century newspaper. It has news and comment, hosts blogs and publishes a wide variety of opinion pieces from a swathe of commentators. Since then it has gained a large audience community, expanded in scope and employees, and has branched out into local versions which challenge the traditional media.

The success of the HuffPo is a direct challenge to the traditional newspaper industry. It keeps its production costs low, minimises the costs of content and offers broad appeal. It is a new way of presenting the news to a different generation – available only online - with no hard copy version. There are lessons to be learnt here by the traditional newspaper industry, which is still fumbling with the best way to embrace the digital age.

With hard copy circulation and readership falling, classified ad revenue plummeting and general trend away from traditional news sources newspapers have been slow to embrace the online environment. Often the focus is on transferring the contents of the hard copy paper online, without considering the intricacies of the new technology. Newspapers need to accept the reality that the internet is here to stay and to start working out how to use it well. To do this they need to design specifically for an online environment.

References:
Greenslade, R 2010, Six good lessons from HuffPo's success, Greenslade Blog, guardian.co.uk
Wikipedia - The Huffington Post

Publishing anonymous comments

In the UK both the Times and the Independent online newspapers are banning anonymous comments. To comment you will have to log in. Though still be able to use a pseudonym, comments will be linked to an account and traceable back to the originator, effectively erasing anonymity.

On one hand anonymous commenting can lead to situations where rude, uncivil, derogatory or just plain nasty things can be posted. There’s even a term for it - ‘trolling’. On the other hand, anonymous commenting gives people a freedom to say whatever they want without self censoring themselves. Anonymity gives many people the confidence to tell their truth – be it mundane or controversial - without fear of reprisals.

Anonymous commenting would therefore seem to be a case of protecting civility and sensibility vs protecting freedom of speech.

If websites are concerned about civility in their comments section they should apply more effective moderation, filtering out those comments that they deem too offensive for publication. This is more labour intensive, but encourages people to speak truthfully, without self censoring themselves.

In today’s world what you say and post online can come back to haunt you. Potential employers check social networking pages before making a final decision on hiring. The practice of data mining can be used to build a profile of a person. Innocent or controversial comments have the real chance of damaging careers or reputations. Anonymous posting has always been a way to protect yourself from these practices.

References:
Dowling, T 2010, Will other sites follow the Independent in banning anonymous postings? Guardian.co.uk

Advertising to be Published on Twitter

Twitter has announced a plan to begin using ‘promoted tweets’ – advertising delivered via Twitter.

Twitter, a personal mini-blog application has become vastly popular since its inception four years ago. But despite its popularity and the millions of dollars that have been invested in its development and marketing, it is still yet to provide a return for investors. Just like the paywalling of newspapers, promoted tweets are an attempt to make a profit from a new form of publishing.

Twitters plan of promoted tweets will work by having users seeing sponsored tweets on twitter search pages, having advertising on the twitter homepage that will be tailored to the user, and also through tweets directly to users.

The challenge will be for Twitter to incorporate advertising without driving away their user base. Their plan to pull promoted tweets that aren’t attracting attention will be one motivating factor that will influence the advertisers who use the service. The onus will be on the advertiser to be attention grabbing and interesting, worthy of re-twittering. This will force the advertisers to work hard to embrace the particular idiosyncrasies of the microblog.

While we would all like to keep things free, the costs of running services such as Twitter need to be paid, and a business model that can sustain the service must be found. Perhaps this is the one. Whether the users of twitter are willing to have the advertising becoming part of their tweeting experience remains to be seen.

References:

Liedtke, M & Ortutay B 2010, Twitter takes ads, The Australian viewed 22 May 2010

To publish behind a paywall

News Ltd has moved to erect paywalls around its news content in an attempt to make publishing online news profitable. The exact details of the paywalling are yet to be finalised, but a subscription or freemium model is the most likely scenario (Clark, 2009), whereby general users can access some of the stories on the news site, while payment will be needed in order to access more specialised areas.

Although the immediate effect of paywalls will be to reduce readership, as those members of the audience who are unwilling to pay are lost, the smaller, paying audience will provide a new income stream. Whether this is enough to make a profit is doubtful. The advantage, however, will be a more dedicated audience, one that can be leveraged for further profit.

With paywall income being insufficient to make a profit, leverage is what it’s all about.

While sites like Google leverage their massive user base in order to turn a profit from advertising, their audience is loose and untargeted, their profits depend on the massive numbers of audience they reach. The paywall model, rather than seeking relevance for a wide cross section of the community is about grasping and holding a smaller, but more committed, audience. It’s about leveraging a targeted market, whether for advertising, for classifieds or for associated product promotion.

In the era of The Long Tail niche markets are king. Paywalls are designed to capture a dedicated niche market, which can then be leveraged to make a profit.

References:
The Guardian Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer
The Long Tail – Chris Anderson’s Blog