The future of journalism?

I am increasingly addicted to Telegraph blogs, created by the very innovate team around Shane Richmond. So why is this:

• I like this new stream-of-conciousness journalism
• I like that it's newsy but also personal (in the style of blogs)
• I love the use of (often superb) photography
• I like the fact that if I leave it for a few hours there's usually a few more posts - Telegraph blogs are collectively one big group blog
• I like how accessible it is, no clicking around, just bookmark the main page and check every now and again (no, I don't bother with RSS feeds)

And therein lies the power of blogs by large media groups:

• lots of good writers to tap into
• ditto photographers and paid-for photography
• a very high frequency of new postings

The Guardian is rather smug about getting to blogging before The Telegraph, but I actually prefer the latter's presentation.

But The Telegraph will still have some trouble persuading the blogging purists of its intentions because, despite saying it has a positive policy on being 'linky' (linking to external sites), it runs the most link-free blogs you are likely to see.

However Telegraph blogs is contributing to the debate about the future of journalism (whether it wants to or not). It has created a news/views 'channel' for want of a better word where the success of each journalist is tracked precisely. Conversely it is also a place where we as readers are by logging in voting each time for one writer or another. Pop Idol hasn't quite extended the brand to journalism yet but it is happening by default anyway. Editors on all newspapers already know who the public are voting for - and the less read writers are well aware of it.

Comments

[Alex Smith]

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