The currency of blogs
It was a cold, windy, wet Sunday afternoon. Too cold, wet and windy, in fact, for the lunch in Southwold that Andrew Grant-Adamson, journalism professor at the University of Westminster, was planning, so he started compiling a newspaper blog index instead. This led him to ask the question: "What is the Purpose of Newspaper blogs?" and a lively debate ensued, with many "names" in British newspaper blogging piling in. Glamorous Times religion correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, responded philosophically saying:
"I don't see that question as much different to asking what is the purpose of anything. I notice that you wrote this originally on a wet Sunday afternoon when it was too cold to go out for lunch. I am no psychologist, but I can see how on such a grim afternoon in Southwold, life can seem to lack purpose. It can even lack purpose on such afternoons in Kew sometimes. And that, I guess, is the purpose of newspaper blogs. They get us through those rainy afternoons, those meaningless mornings. Whether it is writing them or reading them."
Three days ago, Robin Hamman, head of blogging at the BBC, posted an excellent response under the title "What's the purpose of tv and radio blogs?" He pointed out that, "Since launch, and counting only those on our main blogging platform (we're using two), the BBC's bloggers have made around 4000 posts and we've had, across those blogs, well over 100,000 comments. When all the blogs are taken into account, the average post generates between 20 — 30 comments and several blogs get 100 or more comments on nearly ever post. That is, I think, a good measure of highly engaging content."
Hamman returned to the fray yesterday at cybersoc.com and distilled the purpose of "old media" blogs into the four "C"s: Contacts, Context, Content, Comment.
Rainy Day would add one more "C", and it would be "Currency", for want of a better word. The double meaning is intentional as most "old media" businesses are businesses so they need to show a return on their investment in blogs. That means page views, which means advertising revenue. That's "Currency", but it won't come unless the blogs make and break news, which means posting up to five entries a day, every day. That's Nick Denton's not-so-big secret. That's "Currency", too, but it's dirty work and I don't know if it's Ruth Gledhill's cup of tea.
