Pioneer editor drops blog
Doug Clifton, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the first major metropolitan newspaper editor to start blogging, is dropping his blog after eight months because it took too much time and got little traffic. "The audience isn’t anywhere big enough and I have too many other things that stand in the way," he told E&P.
At first he blogged nearly every day, but eventually he slowed and, after a June vacation, never got back in the groove. He wrote about everything from how the paper writes headlines to how his own Vietnam service affected his view of the current Kerry and Bush Vietnam controversies.
"My goal was to write at least several times a week," Clifton said. "Take what would be an editor’s column and explain things to the bloggers, and it worked reasonably well."
"I think it was worthwhile because it gave me some insight into what the medium was." But because each entry only got a few hundred page views, he said he "began to question the utility of it. I had done it as an experiment and there was some initial interest, but for me it wasn't effective."
Sep 28, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(2)
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2 comments about 'Pioneer editor drops blog'"But because each entry only got a few hundred page views, he said he "began to question the utility of it."
Isn't this the main problem with so many blogs? They lack any long term relevance. I read Jeff Jarvis and others of that ilk, but I can't think of any situation in which I would find it useful, or even interesting, to go through the archives.
Unless your daily opinion is sought after, you won't get the kinda page views the CPD Editor would have liked. The only way to usefully blog is to evolve into a googlable resource, or a 'living archive' as I like to think of it. Where factual niche posts can be adpated and ammended over the years via your comment box.
Just my theory. FWIW.
Posted by pieman at September 28, 2004 8:56 PM
Clifton notes in his farewell post that his blog was "more like a traditional 'view from the newsroom' column than the kind of thing real bloggers do."
He's absolutely right -- and therein lies the problem.
From the start, after reading a Poynter story about his blog, I was disappointed that it was held up as an example of a pioneering "blog" by a newspaper editor. As a blog, it was, in a word, lame. Longwinded posts, sometimes with very few links, and no opportunity for readers to comment within the blog itself, forcing them to go to an associated online forum instead. Basically his blog was a series of columns in reverse chronological order with some archival links nearby. Considered as "view from the newsroom" columns, his posts were fine. But to call the collection of them a blog was questionable. It's not surprising the traffic was poor.
Newspaper blogs are, in part, an opportunity for professional reporters and editors to serve as role models for ordinary bloggers. The idea is to find quality links, dig up interesting facts and, when appropriate, formulate strong opinions -- then present all of it in clear and engaging language. In other words, newspaper blogs should demonstrate the inherent value of quality journalism even in a more casual setting.
In this context, it's disturbing that Clifton was presented in trade coverage as even a minor pioneer or icon for newspaper bloggers.
Posted by John Dosier at September 28, 2004 10:53 PM
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