Profile for Adam Tinworth

Website: http://www.onemanandhisblog.com

About Me: I've been blogging for over half a decade, and now spend my waking hours trying to persuade journalists to join the bloggy bandwagon.

City: London

Country: UK

Sex: Male

Marital Status: Married

Occupation: Head of Blog Development

Company: Reed Business Information

Favorite TV Shows: QI, Doctor Who, Countryfile

Favorite Quotes: "Coffee, dark as night, and bitter as the heart of a woman scorned."

Recent Replies by Adam Tinworth

On 'Hiatus':
Thanks, Kate, but sadly it's very serious.
On 'Video Comments Now Live Here - Via Seemic':
Look like that just ain't ready for primetime yet. I'll wait for the next version of it, I think.
On 'How To Be a Community Editor (in 2 posts or less)':
Yeah. I think use of terms like "our community" is non-useful, because we don't own them - they own it, and we just provide facilities for it. And you have to listen to what they want.
On 'Plurk: 3 Week Verdict on MicroBlogging Service':
Yeah, it certainly has an intensity - and perhaps an intimacy - that Twitter lacks.
On 'How To Be a Community Editor (in 2 posts or less)':
Tish,

We certainly see problems with journalists not wanting to join in, even when management are encouraging it. I do think it's a fear thing, though, with people not wanting to put themselves "out there", into personal exposure. Which is kinda weird when your job involves publishing to thousands of people...

And come join us on Twitter! It'd be great to have you in that conversation.
On 'Plurk: 3 Week Verdict on MicroBlogging Service':
You're right. I just can't pass through the Plurk pain barrier and live my life there. I need to face the facts, I'll never be the Scoble of Plurk...
On 'How To Be a Community Editor (in 2 posts or less)':
Well, at least that gives Andrew and I a reason for living... :-)
On 'Fuel Crisis? What Fuel Crisis?':
It's certainly a narrow, car-centric view of the world.
On 'Whispers of the Hackopalypse':
Hmm. Maybe I should use one of the other default designs, then. But that means redoing the template customisations. Decisions, decisions.
On 'Whispers of the Hackopalypse':
Oooh...thanks. That's a great list.
On 'Measuring Engagement, Measuring Conversation':
Ah, but you could at least get a domain name, just in case you ever wanted to escape Google's gentle caresses…
On 'Mobile Broadband: Testing 3's 3G Dongle':
That's a pretty unhappy story, mate.
On 'Blog Upgrade in Progress':
And replies? How about them?
On 'Blog Upgrade in Progress':
Testing commenting.
On 'My Place in London's Social Network':
Oh, yes. Hadn't spotted that aspect of it. Hmmm.
On 'Movable Type 4: Live, but a bit poorly':
Thanks for the pointers, Tim. Much appreciated.

We're taking a serious look at Enzo now, and may implement it, depending on when 4.15 hits the streets.
On 'Screencasting Movable Type 4':
I have now! And posted it...
On 'Fire Alarm':
Luckily, I'm showing no signs of male pattern baldness. I am going grey at an alarming rate, though…
On 'The 3 Best Quotes from the Journalism Leaders Forum':
My initial reaction is that we need to start sharing experience of what is (and isn't working) from those people who are actively engaged in the shift to social media-informed journalism.

Ideally, you'd be looking at some of the usual suspects - the Kevin Anderson, Shane Richmond, Robin Hamman types.
On 'Why I Still Buy Magazines':
We, inevitably, have a lot of discussions in the office about the doom of printed magazines. I've always argued that they're safe, until the point you can read the internet in the bath without worrying about losing hundreds of pounds of kit…
On 'On Display in the Quadrant House Foyer':
Good point. As our print lines thin out a little, we really should be using that space in a different way.
On 'Interview with an Adders':
To be fair, both of those things are true... :)
On 'Quick'n'Dirty Video':
@Becky - you should be so lucky. :)

@Neil - I wouldn't want to offend Seesmic's French founder Loic with my terrible, terrible French accent...
On 'It's Change Or Die Time For Media Companies':
There are some - I'll try to post some examples later in the day.
On 'How Observant Are You?':
Maybe. But I didn't. I saw it on a blog, whose author saw it on another blog.

Just because something is spreading through two media, and catching active computer users as well as passive couch potatoes doesn't make it any less powerful, does it?
On 'The Most Important Part of Lunch':
Hey, your call, but as I said earlier, this is a 24 hour only experiment. It's part of the thinking I'm doing for work about the sort of toolbox a digital journalist might need.
On '4 Things Journalists Can Learn from the Lacy/Zuckerberg Interview':
@Graham I'm not suggesting that she should be criticised for not following 800 people on Twitter. Few people could usefully process that level of input. I'm merely suggesting that, coupled with the other evidence and the exhortation to Follow her on her homepage, the ratio of following to followers suggests a publishing mindset, not a conversational one.
On 'Explaining Twitter (and why you should use it)':
Linda, thanks, but it was for a presentation that I gave earlier in the week.

I think people are beginning to suffer from Twitter overload. I suspect Twitter culls are on the horizon for some people…
On 'Never work with animals, children or web editors':
Oh, we know them all right. They were shown during the mornings when we were on our summer holidays as kids.

I imagine Mr Garner has had to deal with the references his whole life.
On 'Speed & The Digital Journalist':
Oh, yes. One of the things I find most exciting about blogging is that it can improve the quality of journalism out there....
On 'One Way To Sell Magazines':
But it was entertaining to watch whether or not you buy the mag, wasn't it?

I linked it because it was entertaining - as I would non-commercial material. It's up to you if it influences you to buy or not. It didn't make a difference to me. I'm an Esquire man...
On 'Don't be rude about IBM':
For real.

The Lotus Notes fan community is a strange, dangerous place, it appears.
On 'Ah, the Weekend':
I'll let you know as soon as Kristine posts it.
On 'After Max Gogarty: Rethinking Mainstream Media Blogging':
But even if this piece had been commissioned for a printed travel piece or Sunday supplement, it would still have been a pile of embarrassingly awful rubbish

True enough, but that's why I thought it'd fit right in…
On 'View from the First Floor':
That's great! Glad you found it - I really enjoyed my few hours there.
On 'When Mainstream Media Blogging Goes Bad':
Lyn - that was the point I was trying (and clearly failing) to make. The wider blog-reading world demands more of national newspaper blogs than self-created and run ones, despite the fact that both are free to the reader...
On 'Scenes From Office Life':
Ah, now, we did suspect that you were the artist...
On 'Blog Azeroth: Mashing Blogging and Forums':
I don't think either of us are right on the cutting edge of neophile behaviour. We don't rush from blogging platform to blogging platform, or declare that blogging is dead and replaced by Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr or whatever.

We're more on the early implementer scale - not on the technological bleeding edge, but figuring out how to apply the new concepts to existing industries.
On 'An Anonymous Anti-Blogger Journalist?':
There's certainly a trollish aspect to it, but the thing that struck me as interesting about it was that it could certainly be a disgruntled journalist in our employ, who has (rather ironically) turned to blogging to criticise a blogger.

On the other hand, it could also be a competitor.
On 'Are Journalists as annoying as Bloggers?':
You can, not that anyone ever uses them...
On 'Hot Dates & Social Engineering in Facebook Apps':
My bad. I briefly installed a "comment by Google Account" plugin - and discovered it really wasn't ready for prime time.
On 'Are Journalists as annoying as Bloggers?':
Well, certainly that's the ideal, but it's not always the case.

And, of course, as your question about reporters/journalists implies, hackery can be a very broad church, encompassing both hard news reporters and, well, opinion columnists...
On 'Are Journalists as annoying as Bloggers?':
Fed up days...weeks...months.... :)
On 'Blog Azeroth: Mashing Blogging and Forums':
Well, I had an ulterior motive in asking that question. It's one of the things that journalists really struggle with - they're so used to other publications in the same subject area being the unmentionable enemy that co-operative traffic boosting is a strange, uncomfortable idea for them.
On 'Facebook: Don't Be Too Web Active, Now':
To be honest, Andrew, I wasn't actually thinking of you. Remind me to tell you the story I was thinking of some time. :)

Anyway, to respond to your point, yes, I'm actually mushing together two separate thoughts, and hence sacrificing clarity on the altar of failed wit…

For people who go on to be heavily Web 2.0 active, Facebook tends to be either a phase, or a starter zone, just as has happened with Livejournal, MySpace, etc. They're the people who are prepared to put more creative investment into their web activities, and the limited boundaries of Facebook will eventually frustrate them. These are the people for whom Facebook is a "training-wheels" site. This tends to be true of the existing Web 2.0 crowd neophillic crowd who dive it, go "OMG this is the best!!!!" for a few months, and then get bored. (See: Scoble)

However, as you so rightly state, there are many people for whom Facebook is perfectly adequate because they're more than happy with social interaction which does not require a great deal of time to create something first. Equally, for some people who are putting creative input into other web projects, Facebook will fulfil a need for low-input, high-return networking pleasure.

However, I'm still inclined to believe that "walled-gardens" approaches to internet networking will eventually fail to dominate the market, for a number of reasons, not least that they always have in the past.

Clearer?
On 'Goodbye, Dreamhost':
I'm not actually blogging on Typepad here (although I do have a couple of blogs on the service). I'm using Movable Type, hosted by LivingDot.

I chose MT back in 2003 before there was a Wordpress or Typepad, and have never had a good reason to shift away. Now that we're using Movable Type Enterprise at work to host all our blogs, I actually have an incentive to continue with it - it allows me to play with the new versions before we start using them at RBI.

I'm glad I stuck with MT & Typepad - both have been through their doldrums, but the development work going into them now is impressive.
On 'And...Done':
Thanks, Karl!
On 'Wanted: Social Media Pusher':
Oooookay. Feeling a bit nervous now. Expecting to wake up with a horse's head's Facebook page on my pillow in the morning…
On 'And...Done':
See that big space down the right hand side? That's for the blogroll. I hope to have it in there sometime over the course of the week.
On 'MT Upgrade in Progress':
Testing reply functionality
On 'MT Upgrade in Progress':
Just testing comments.
On 'Comments Busted':
That's a relief...
On 'Comments Busted':
This is a test comment.

I'm really hoping that it works...
On 'The Path to Journalistic Blogging: The Four Signs of the Hackopalypse':
Ah, the long-departed limitations of hot metal...

Thanks for the flexibility. I'll be a good boy next time, promise.
On 'How I Use Feed Subscriptions: Part 1':
I find tag feeds very useful for particular niches. But I'll be writing more about that in Part 2 of this mini-series of posts....
On 'WiFi in the Cupboard':
Thanks, Adrian. It's much appreciated.
On 'On a Feed Reading Orgy':
Dan,

I responded with a post rather than a reply here. Hope that answers the questions.
On 'JournalismDaily: Bloggy Hack Tracking':
*tugs forelock*

Thank ye, Mr High-Ranked Blogger, sir. ;-)
On 'Publishers Need To Get A Grip On Hosting':
While I'm sure you're right that scaling is hard, so's producing good content and selling advertising and...

In of itself, "it's hard" is not much of an excuse. A conflict of priorities does make more sense, but really, just being up should be pretty darn high on that priority list.

Looking forward to the Fast Company redesign by the way...
On 'links for 2008-01-04':
Thanks for the comment. My main concern is the detatching of the comments from MT itself. If, for example, I wanted to switch away from Disqus for any reason, I can export my comments from your service, I gather, but how the heck would I get them back into MT?
On 'JournalismDaily: Bloggy Hack Tracking':
Of course. That would be shallow and unworthy. :)
On 'Spammers invade Technorati':
Ah, excellent. Thanks for the speedy work.
On 'Le Web 3: The Missing Posts':
And to you, sir.

We must catch up for a beverage or two in the new year.
On 'NUJ Multimedia Working Report Out, Union Still Clueless on Blogging':
Oh, for goodness' sake. It's called an open conversation, Donnacha, it's what's blogging's all about.

And I absolutely stand by the fact that I find it inordinately depressing that the people behind our (happy now?) website's redesign (and who are spending my subs) are so clueless about decade-old concepts, and I think I have every right to say as much on my blog.
On 'Sam Sethi Controversy 2007 edition: Blognation':
That, in of itself, is interesting.

Thanks for letting us know, and I quite understand why you chose not to post on company matters. It try to avoid doing too much of that myself...
On 'What's the Collective Noun for a Group of Editors?':
A Managed Decline, if you please.
On 'What's the Collective Noun for a Group of Editors?':
A colleague of mine also suggest "an opinion" - which works for me.
On 'links for 2007-11-28':
I thought that might draw you out of the woodwork. :)

Nice to see more and more platforms supporting OpenID, and giving me another good reason to experiment with them.
On 'Six Years of Blogging':
Right place, wrong time…

The pic was taken on the day I started blogging. I actually missed the fireworks this year, because I'm still struggling to throw off this cold, and a couple of hours on a cold heath would probably have made things worse, alas.
On 'Six Years of Blogging':
One can dream… :)
On 'NUJ: Forget The Customers, and They'll Forget You':
Adam, you're missing the whole point of everything that was in the Journalist and swallowing the blatant misrepresentations of our critics whole.

These opinions are my own, not second hand. To be honest, I threw that copy of Journalist into the recyling bin in disgust after reading the article. I had to fish it out, much to my wife's amusement, to do the research for this post. And if I have missed the point, why have I done so? Is it that the unhelpful, reactionary attitudes on display in the article alienated too many of those of us working on professional journalism in that "crap" Web 2.0 world? That's the NUJ's problem, not mine.

The primary focus of a lot of our work these days is on how the cuts in the industry (from local Trinity Mirror titles to AOL) is damaging journalism - which effects the audience.

Sure - but why are those cuts being made? Is it because the audience is moving away from old models of publishing? (And the first wave of internet companies from the 90s certainly could as old models). Why is the union doing reflexive class-strife, management-bashing rather than actively engaging in a debate on new journalistic roles in the Web 2.0 age? Well, in some cases it is. The local chapel here at RBI is very proactive in that area. What a shame the mag failed to represent some of their very good work.

You don't mention my quotes about Facebook that were also in the Journalist, or the article about cuts in AOL - why not?

Because I wasn't doing a line by line rebuttal of the whole thing. I don't use every quote I get in an interview either.

You know well that the NUJ group on Facebook is the largest trade union group on it as you're a member, but you still claim journalists don't understand it or use it.

I state clearly that some journalists don't get it, and that I'm working with many that do. It's clearly the latter folks that are in the Facebook group.

You repeat the allegation that the basis of my piece was a strawman

I've read the article that you quote. That's not replacing journalists - that's using user content in an area that you couldn't afford to pay journalists to do. It's complimentary to professional journalism, not a replacement for it. I'd say the NUJ would be better placed working out how journalists can use all this to improve what they do, rather than just railing against it.

Every single journalist we've spoken to wants to make the move to new media work - they want quality material online, yet far too many have told us how the ridiculous decisions of their management are making it impossible for them to do it right.

That may well be the case. In which case, you failed to represent that in the Journalist articles.

And that's why I'm waiting for the full report to decide if I remain an NUJ member.

it's about quality, not technology

There we agree. But I think technology can facilitate quality, as well as undermine it. And I can't find that point anywhere in the article.

In the end, you made it harder for those of us who are actively promoting professional journalism in a Web 2.0 age, and that's why I'm so embarrassed to be a member. I've actively promoted the union and it's positive attitude to reshaping the way journalists work.

And you've made me embarrassed to have done that.

Perhaps you need to stop being so reflexively defensive and realise that many of the critics of the coverage are just as passionate about quality online journalism as you claim to be, and that there are solid points at the heart of what they, and I, are saying.
On 'Blogging and Politics Event Upcoming':
I'll do my very best to find you and say "hello", then.
On 'Not a Hardcore Blogger':
I believe that choosing where to whine is an important service for your readers! :-)
On 'Free = More Pageviews = Money?':
Quite honestly, both. If there isn't enough short-term revenue to at least cushion the horrible bleeding out of offline revenue that most publishing businesses are seeing, there won't be a long term…

Don't get me wrong - I'm not arguing for the retention of pay walls. I'm just suggesting that traffic in itself is not actually very useful to a commercial publishing organisation unless in comes hand-in-hand with revenue. And that's not guaranteed.

I'm still not convinced that the current online variation of the old school publishing model of largely-ad supported journalism is actually sustainable in anything like its current form in the long term, and wonder if the Times is swapping one dead end for another.
On 'A Quick Confession…':
Well, I could sack myself from my own blog, I suppose…

Next time I'm away, I may try to line up a guest blogger or two to cover my absence.
On 'A Quick Confession…':
A mix of more history, less geographical dispersion, and unfamiliarity, probably...
On 'From the 80s':
Fair enough - I look like a poor imitation of a 1980s band...
On 'Fighting Change, Every Step of the Way':
Dear Karl,

I am now a cynic about online publishing. Please send me on a 5-week tour across the US.

Yours sincerely,

Adam

:)
On 'There is no British Blogosphere':
It may be an unintended side effect, but it's certainly been one of the happier ones.

And it's proved that there's a hunger for local discussion that local papers have totally failed to cater to, as well. And that's quite interesting on a number of levels.
On 'Your Bloggy Reading for Monday Morning':
Brian,

I agree that the default wording on the Movable Type templates I'm using is less than helpful in explaining the options for commenting. I'll fix it once (a) I've come up with a better form of words and (b) I figure out how to change it…

Thanks for pointing out the link error. It's now corrected.
On 'Danger: Journalist Bloggers At Work':
More grumpy, I suspect.
On 'Danger: Journalist Bloggers At Work':
It wasn't just biscuits - we had croissants and coffee for breakfast and a free lunch!

Nothing but the most average for our bloggers!
On 'Danger: Journalist Bloggers At Work':
They're whatever our catering team supplies. They may shop at M&S, but I doubt it…
On 'Wordpress Woes':
I have a suspicion that it was something to do with the templates, but I can't be sure.

Just not got the skill level. :)
On 'Why recycling is so important':
Ah, humour…
On 'One Man and the Cult':
Which is certainly true of him in his live appearances, including that "debate" at the Frontline Club. The problem for me with that sort of argument is that my colleagues will spot that I'm playing the man, not the ball. Not engaging with the issues will lead them to suspect that there must be some truth to it.

And that's just going to make my life harder.
On 'One Man and the Cult':
It's worth it. At many points it's a hugely entertaining read for all the wrong reasons.

The London bombings of "6/7" are an entertaining error in a book that praises the value of editors, for example…
On 'What I Learned From Social Media Club Tonight':
I think we're struggling to find answers because there aren't any yet - what we really need is approaches to try, and suggestions of what's working already. We needed about an extra hour last night.

Maybe more...
On 'Welcome to OM&HB's New Home':
Just testing that cmments are working OK.

Move along, nothing to see here…
On 'Comments Closed: A First':
Think discussions of criminal records and murder accusations…
On 'Foot and Mouth Yet Again':
Hey, Caroline. You should have had an e-mail with my contact details by now. If it didn't arrive, let me know.
On 'Community Care Fisked':
Although, to be fair, the blogger is more open about his biases than the Daily Mail has ever been.
On 'Research before you write - even about blogs':
The more I think about this, the more it dawns on me that journalists are often trapped in a form of circular authority:

"Why is this important?"
"Because it's in the magazine."
"Why is it in the magazine?"
"Because it's important?"

The social media takes away the barrier of importance to publication, but instead asserts a social model of judgement of worth. If it matters, people will read, link and comment. If it's not, it will be left to shrivel away in the dark corners of the internets…
On 'The Telegraph's Shifting Video Sands':
My one's just changed again, to a video about a triple murder. Let's see how long your one remains consistent.
On 'Retraining Journalists vrs Other Frustrating Tasks':
I'd go as far as to say that a robust skull, and comfortable desk coverings, are a necessity in this kind of job...
On 'Work in Progress: Types of Blog Post':
Kristine: You have a point. I suppose that I've over-emphasised it because journalists I deal with tend to skew so strongly in favour of nothing but original reporting. One of the things I need to do it open their eyes to the other possibilities.

Cyberscribe:: Memes are a good idea. I shudder at the very thought of original poetry from our journalists…
On 'Left Hand, Meet Right Hand…':
You're right. It's a good thing that news moves so quickly around blogs. I just find it amazing that news can go from London to Chicago and back faster than it does from the 3rd floor to the 8th floor of our building…
On 'My Tragic Addiction':
Your wish is my command…

It's two-fold, really. First of all, blogging is now my job, and keeping up with what's happening in the blogging world is part of that. So that'll push me to higher levels than most bloggers.

But I'm also still a passionate blogger in my private life, contributing to two personal blogs and a range of specialist topic ones. And so, blogging is a significant part of both my personal and business life.
On 'Go on, Leave a Comment':
Well, thanks for your help testing the new functionality anyway... :-)
On 'Bloggily Blonde: The Self-Appointed A-List':
Tish & Rachel: I think you've both hit the nail on the head, in the sense that many of these newer bloggers are more interested in the triumvirate of publishing-traffic-Adsense then they are any feeling of community. So they're more interested in SEO tricks and mechanical approaches to getting better PageRank than they are the traditional method of serving your time, writing great stuff and getting links...

Will Google make it harder or easier for them to do that, I wonder?
On 'Bloggily Blonde: The Self-Appointed A-List':
Kristine: To be fair, many journalists were trained five years ago in the idea of "sticky content", whereby you get people into your sites and KEEP THEM THERE AT ALL COSTS.

Some are understandably rather narked at having what they were told to do then turned on its head. But that's the issue, isn't it? They're being told to do it, rather than discovering themselves by reading and participating in blogs.
On 'Blogger Down?':
I sincerely hope this isn't a return to the bad old days when Blogger was up and down like a yo-yo.
On 'Lies, Damn Lies and Web 2.0':
I think of all professions, teachers have the most responsibility to stay au fait with all this social media stuff. After all, who else is going to educate kids on how to use this stuff responsibly?
On 'Can Journalists Learn to Listen To Bloggers?':
I've said in the past that I sometimes think that it's harder to turn a journalist into a good blogger than it is to turn a random member of the public.

While the journalist may have the writing skills, they often have more to unlearn (or at least let go of) than they have to learn...
On 'Blog Post vrs Magazine Article':
Funnily enough, I was having a conversation on that exact topic a couple of hours ago.

You may be getting an e-mail in the next couple of weeks…

Profile for Adam Tinworth

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