A couple of conversations I've had recently have brought forth a revelation in my holiday-deprived brain. One of the big challenges for media organisations looking to get good journalistic blogging going is ownership.
Now, I'm not talking ownership in the traditional "who owns the copyright" sense - because in most cases it's pretty clear that the employer does. I'm talking about the feeling that most good bloggers I know have that the blog is theirs - their space, hosted by them.
Certainly we've found that group blogs rarely work, unless the team has a close-knit identity and a clue about blogging already (and I must acknowledge the recent work of Stacey and her team in disproving my previous mantra that group blogs don't work at RBI). And, in contrast, bloggers who feel a strong sense of ownership of their blog, and shape it with their own personality and enthusiasm reap the traffic and engagement rewards for the company.
Now, I'm not talking ownership in the traditional "who owns the copyright" sense - because in most cases it's pretty clear that the employer does. I'm talking about the feeling that most good bloggers I know have that the blog is theirs - their space, hosted by them.
Certainly we've found that group blogs rarely work, unless the team has a close-knit identity and a clue about blogging already (and I must acknowledge the recent work of Stacey and her team in disproving my previous mantra that group blogs don't work at RBI). And, in contrast, bloggers who feel a strong sense of ownership of their blog, and shape it with their own personality and enthusiasm reap the traffic and engagement rewards for the company.
Now, that's a challenge for existing editorial teams, where the editor is used to being essentially a despotic ruler, with the desk heads as the high priests*. It requires the editor to stop being a director, but move more into a conductor role, where they make sure that the various parts of the team are working in harmony, but giving each section basic freedom to manage their tasks as they see fit.
Equally challenging is that fact that this feeling of wonership also needs to extends to
the technology journalists use. Most bloggers working for media companies have the traditional partially- or completely locked down laptop, chosen and built to a corporate spec, rather than for the needs of the blogger. By way of contrast, most effective independent bloggers are working on their own machines, chosen by themselves, and with their own choice of software. For the blogger the laptop is their portable office, a communication device that is an extension of themselves (witness the huge degree to which many bloggers customise their laptops with stickers). For journalists, it's another reminder of the fact that everything they do is someone else's.
Finding an effective way to liberate employee bloggers from these traditional corporate constraints may well be one way of smoothing the transition into the connected journalism age.
Anyone got any ideas? :-)
*Yes, yes, desperately mixed metaphors there, I know.
Equally challenging is that fact that this feeling of wonership also needs to extends to
the technology journalists use. Most bloggers working for media companies have the traditional partially- or completely locked down laptop, chosen and built to a corporate spec, rather than for the needs of the blogger. By way of contrast, most effective independent bloggers are working on their own machines, chosen by themselves, and with their own choice of software. For the blogger the laptop is their portable office, a communication device that is an extension of themselves (witness the huge degree to which many bloggers customise their laptops with stickers). For journalists, it's another reminder of the fact that everything they do is someone else's.
Finding an effective way to liberate employee bloggers from these traditional corporate constraints may well be one way of smoothing the transition into the connected journalism age.
Anyone got any ideas? :-)
*Yes, yes, desperately mixed metaphors there, I know.
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