At 11:00 I was having lunch. Tuna in mayonnaise with sweetcorn on brown bread. The bread was home-made by a company that pretends to be a little old lady. The rest was away-made by fish, fowl and farmers.
It was gorgeous. So much so it made me feel guilty. You know. All the starving children. In the crèche in the village. They don’t get lunch until 12:30 the poor little mites.
Ah yes. The kiddies. The Irish Times was fretting about them too. Its Education Today section was in Tuesday’s edition. The Noticeboard carried information about upcoming events of interest to those about to leave school - an open day at the Racing Academy and Centre of Education for anyone thinking of a career in horse racing. There was even a URL for the RACE website. Fair play to the IT - it is not so long ago the same piece would have read something like more details available on the RACE website, with no link. Find it if you can.
Such a pity though these kids can’t access the Education Today section without paying a subscription fee.
The IT seems caught in a Lanigan’s Ball loop of stepping out then stepping back in again when it comes to technology.
At times, it meets new challenges with foresight and vigour, as it did many years ago when they it became the first Irish newspaper to launch an online presence. Then it shoots itself in that same foot that it struck out so confidently, as it did when it began charging for its online content.
Recently the IT admitted its website is struggling to break even. Surprise, surprise.
Madam
If you provide content for free the advertisers will be lining up in droves to give you their money. Even if you only open the archives you’ll make a killing.
Yours etc.
The Sneeze
The IT never seems to realise the commercial value of the Internet. Perhaps they fear the Internet. Or they simply don’t understand it.
On the one hand, it has some of the best technology writers in Karlin Lillington, Danny O’Brien and Mike Butcher. On the other, it has Colin Murphy saying things that many bloggers like to share their thoughts on politics, the media, popular culture and their toilet habits.
The Irish Times’ editorial policy on, and understanding of, blogging is confusing to say the least. Wednesday’s edition carried an opinion piece on Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s Irish language policy, written by none other than the blogger An Spailpín Fánach. The Education Section on Tuesday had some Leaving Cert related snippets entitled Blog tales which had quotes from leaving-cert.net (a blog authored by three eloquent school-goers), walsho.net (an equally eloquent one-manstudent blog) and, get this, boards.ie. Yes! boards.ie! boards.ie! Since when are message boards blogs? Is an IM an email? Is a magazine a newspaper? No. They might share a certain traits but they are not the same.
To further confuse matters, the IT hosts very popular blogs by three of its own journalists: Jim Carroll’s On the Record, Shane Hegarty’s Present Tense and Conor Pope’s Price Watch. Yet Conor’s column in the print edition invites readers to offer feedback, with options like phone, post, email or blog it! * So leaving a comment on Conor’s blog makes one a blogger? Eh, no. If that were the case then writing a letter to the editor would make one a journalist.
I cannot help but suspect that The Irish Times is deliberately muddying the waters in order to distract the non-tech-savvy from blogs. Who do they think they are fooling? I don’t care if the little old lady who makes my bread is actually a company if it tastes good - though it would be nice if they admitted it. I don’t care if the IT source a quote from a message board if it’s worth reading - though it would be nice if they didn’t call the source a blog.
Why are they bothering anyway? The bread complements the tuna perfectly. Neither are as good on their own.
* That could be blog on.
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Good post. You should talk to Jazz Biscuit.
Was my picture on the bread?
That is a very good article. The blogs, message boards, newspapers, magazines and the pot plants on the TV stand, are the ingredients we stir up to get a broad picture of the world about us. Leave one out and the stew is not so tasty!
Ah, yes.
But do editors still edit?
I don’t think they do - I think they just outline rough lines of policy; and clarity of thought and writing can go to the dogs. Shure, the spellchecker will look after it.
Green Ink ~ Talking to the Biscuit would be welcome. I’ve spent the day talking to the Hand. Hands actually, the ones that feed me. They’re getting slower at paying their invoices.
Grannymar ~ Your fingerprints were on it.
Eh, I left out the TV stand and pot plant this time. No wonder it’s just doesn’t taste right.
Aonghus ~ The aforementioned Musical Cookie cites an excellent example of clarity: “Mr Cowen was driven to Áras an Uachtaráin for his formal appointment by Mrs McAleese”. The taxi drivers will be up in arms over her double-jobbing.
Interesting perspective.
The tardiness of print media to catch up with modern technologies and trends in how people get their news is one of the signs signalling its end as a primary source of information. This is too bad - I like the range and expertise and quality writing a good newspaper can provide, but they need to stop resisting the internet if they don’t want to become quaint old media fossils. There is a place for them in the new media world if they stake it out now and use some of the cachet their name commands to establish themselves online.
Kevin ~ Thanks. I’d like to hear more from you, but your time is better spent on other things right now. Later.
Sam ~ I love newspapers too. Like I love books. The feel of the paper as well as the quality of writing.
What I hate is the half-hearted way they are adapting to the Internet. I would be fine by me if a paper opted not to use any Internet tools if when writing about those tools done their research properly and were informative.
Nice post, absolutely love the blog. And thanks for the link!
Mark ~ Flattery will get you everywhere. Now back to the books with ya!
[...] an eye on my backlinks lately, and noticed another new one in there two days ago. I was led to this post. The author had seen a piece of mine in the Irish Times, and referred to me as an eloquent blogger. [...]