Disqus - Latest Comments for Kristine

Re: Advice for the new PM

Kristine — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:46:04 -0000

Ha, ha, ha ... fabulous picture. Must admit I never quite thought this day would happen, Brown succeeding Blair, but what an illustration:-)

Re: Can Journalists Learn to Listen To Bloggers?

Kristine — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:37:32 -0000

You know, I think journalists who ignore the blogsophere are loosing out big time. I can't even count all the ways blogging & knowing my way around the blogosphere have benefited me as a journalist.

During a very brief stint as an undergraduate student at Sussex university, long time ago, the dean of the school told me something like, "it's like your are driving a Ferrari compared to the other students, because you have the ability to think for yourself." Now, I found this really strange, because the dean didn't expect his students to be able to think independently until the second year, but being a blogging journalist, is almost like "driving a Ferrari" compared to the other journalists, at least in my part of the world.

Having said that, it took a while from I started blogging to when I started listening. In the beginning, I was much too preoccupied with my own writing, getting the tone right and all of that, since it's a big shift to go from the very structured writing you do as a journalist to blogging. It's a process that doesn't happen over night. In fact, I think blogging is very much a process, constantly evolving, more than any thing else... Hmm, may blog more about this when time allows...

Re: Bloggily Blonde: The Self-Appointed A-List

Kristine — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:38:31 -0000

You know, that's one of those funny old things I could easily rant about far too often: media organisations are always prone to think that linking out is bad for traffic. No matter which surveys I show my employer(s), the thought that linking out INCREASES your traffic/goodwill from readers/value etc just beggars belief for most editors. Linking as an added service your provide for your readers: many media folks struggle, big time, to accept that. In many respects, the world some editors live in, compared to the world we inhabit as bloggers, is so far removed from each other. For one, I've sometimes incurred the reply "you know, we do have a blog, it's a place we have where all our journalists write for FREE"

Re: My Tragic Addiction

Kristine — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:47:31 -0000

And can we have some reasons for this great score, or addiction, whichever way you see it, please?

Re: Work in Progress: Types of Blog Post

Kristine — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:51:44 -0000

Ouch, think I might have posted a half-written comment by mistake, but here's what I was planning to say: lots of good stuff here but not sure about the bit on how 100% original reporting is bad. I think original reporting can be great on a blog if you get the tone right, so it's e.g more open-ended, more informal or opinionated in a way that will spark constructive debate + link to sources, background or perhaps your opponents. I think I know what you're getting at, just needs a slight reformulation, but my mind is too full of other stuff right now to visualise it.. in fact, what am I doing surfing thru my rss-feeds? Better get back to those deadline. I'm sure good examples of blogs that get it right and get it wrong will bring out the points that need to be made though...

Re: One Man and the Cult

Kristine — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:41:37 -0000

I couldn't agree more. It is important to understand why so many smart people take Keeen seriously, despite how his book is littered with logical fallacies - such as the appeal to authority and the call to bring back, or stop diminishing the authority of, the arbiters of taste. 'Know thine enemy' as the saying goes. The worst thing is that Keen's book is breeding minature Keens in various parts of the world, like my own. If I do find time this week, I'll slaughter the one closest to where I'm based, a guy who thinks everything online is bad: online journalism, blogs, citizen journalism - the whole shebang. And I should know better: I might be writing myself out or my career as a media business reporter and back into being a full time commentator, but maybe I'll just get to busy chaing other stories...

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, Weinberger's effort to interpret Keen's arguement in the best possible way is useful reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weinberger/andrew-keens-best-case_b_60785.html

Re: Fighting Change, Every Step of the Way

Kristine — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:18:57 -0000

I just attended a 3-hour talk with the editor of the Spokesman-review. You should have heard his solution to dealing with his most change-resistant editor (I forgot if it was at Spokesman-Review though, have yet to transcribe my 16 pages of notes): he sent her on a 5-week tour across the US to investigate the future of newspapers (mostly to research institutes and think tanks, only one paper as he didn't find newspapers very much in tune with the future). She wrote a book about it and became the most radical agent for change on the paper. You might have heard about their work at Spokesman-Review of course, but it was so many (hundred, thousands, lightyears) away from the reality of Scandinavian media that I found the seminar very inspiring, refreshing etc. And people were very much encouraged to come to Spokane on a study tour...

Re: Blog Azeroth: Mashing Blogging and Forums

Kristine — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:21:46 -0000

Good stuff, but scary intro. A few weeks back I discovered that the diagnosis of 'change addict' fitted my behavioural pattern a bit too well, am I a committed neophile too? Good thing my main editor is a bit of a neophile too, or else I could easily see myself become utterly unemployable (and I've already got enough problems explaining why I've flitted all over the world, gone from columnist to reporter instead of the other way around, not gone the traditional local newspaper route etc etc)...

Re: Blog Azeroth: Mashing Blogging and Forums

Kristine — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:23:05 -0000

Put in that perspective you're compeletely right of course, but if I were to declare blogs dead in favour of twitter on this Northern frontier, most people wouldn't even understand what I was talking about (if I declared blogs dead in favour of Facebook however, all the journalists who've flocked to Facebook but never saw the point of blogs would embrace me). But no, am definently not on the cutting edge of neophile behaviour, am more of a translator btwn new and established, but it's also a matter of context. Several of my editor friends, incl one or two UK ones, can't get their heads around why I bother blogging (and hence give things away for free). But we're back to that old frustration of talking social media to those who still live in some bygone age mentally. Better go do some blogging about all the weird and wonderful media changes instead...

Re: The Most Important Part of Lunch

Kristine — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:17:01 -0000

Perhaps you'll enjoy Knut Albert's blog, he's certainly my favourite beer blogger (and also one of my readers, and occasional commenters, hence I value him even more):

http://knutalbert.wordpress.com/

Re: Mobile Broadband: Testing 3's 3G Dongle

Kristine — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:43:57 -0000

Interesting. I've been relying on mobile broadband since spring 2006 as it's been the only sensible solution for me as a freelancer travelling a lot and based in Norway where wifi connections can be far and few btwn.

It's been invaluable in that I more or less always have a connection wherever I go in Norway, though often frustratingly slow, fragile and volatile - even gives me something to fall back on when I'm abroad and can't find another connection (terribly expensive to use abroad though). I pay about £50 incl VAT for unlimited monthly access in Norway.

Whenever I'm in the UK I'm usually able to find a wifi connection though. But since mobile broadband can be a slow and volatile thing, my online provider's customer service reps tend to tell me that 'all Norwegians' use a landline-based broadband as well (another £50 a month), which seems a bit absurd to me. Anyway, am now changing to a USB modem, new mobile broadband provider, hoping it will be better (I've succumbed to buying into the promises of the former state monopolist here that because they've been in the game so long their coverage is far surperior to anyone elses. Yes, am desperate for a better connection)

Come to think of it though, I can't remember one online provider or telecoms company in England or here worth cheering for. Think Compuserve was the least bad (perhaps because it was my first online provider)....

Re: 3 Mobile Broadband: Upload Speeds Not Good

Kristine — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:00:40 -0000

Thanks for doing these 'user-testing' posts Adam. Wish someone would do in my part of the world, or when I was living in the UK for that matter; for most of my former online providers I suspect it would all be manuals in how to fuck up absoutely everything (perhaps except Compuserve as mentioned in previous comment, but my expectations were zero when I started subscribing to Compuserve:-) )

Re: Tiredness, iCons and iPhone Photos

Kristine — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:43:51 -0000

Yes, life is rotten like that some times. Having to sort out all the practicalities after the death of someone close is often the very last thing you want to be faced with there and then.

Me, I tend to be left with the funeral orations, or reading the poems rather, and writing the obituaries, but I have done the clearing-house-job as well. And I find it very hard to blog when I'm in a bad mood (somtimes I've toyed with the idea of setting up a lyrical, depressed, nevrotic, navel-gazing blog in Norwegian - which I think might go well with certain Norwegian cultural traits, as well as the blogosphere here - but I'd never be able to keep it up + the tone of a blog does tend to determine what kind of audience you attract. As it is, I already have a great bunch of readers at my current blog, who's comments often put a smile on my face no matter how grumpy I feel, or want to feel:-) )

Re: The Ethics of Travel Journalism

Kristine — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:20:40 -0000

Interesting dilemma. As a former press consultant for Visit Britain, I'm very familiar with how the travel industry and travel journalism works in this respect. In Norway, the nationals tend to insist on paying the costs themselves if they do participate in fam trips, while freelancers rarely get a budget to cover costs, and smaller publications simply don't have such a budget. I do think it's fair to disclose whether or not one has received any funding for trips to destinations one writes about though. When it comes to destination markeeters and travel companies: one thing is to facilitate good experieces, provide information about new products etc, another to try to hijack journos or decide the gist of the coverage. The latter does happen, but, journos being journos, it usually backfires:-)

Re: Nationals Fail at Attribution & Linking

Kristine — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:07:02 -0000

In my corner of the world, several big news site either don't allow linking out, or blame the CMS for making it "impossible" or too tricky to do so. I've even worked for sites where linking out was something you could only do by stealth:-) It wouldn't surprise me if this is still the case for many other online news operations....

In fact, the freedom to link out was one of the key reasons why I chose my current main employer. A managing editor acquaintance of mine blames the journalists: that it's a mindshift, and a very difficult one to make for journos who're used to protecting their "exclusive" leads and contacts as best they can (though the journos he speaks of are news journos, so by nature generalists)... When I hear these kind of arguments, I often find myself wondering about the discrepancy btwn how I constantly was told in journalism school (and before) that flexibility, curiosity etc were key character traits for journos and that the news industry was a dynamic, fast-changing kinda place.... And I went to City, so I don't think these ways of describing the industry were unique to the school I attended (though when I graduated, in 2002, linking or not was not an issue; our "online course" was called electronic publishing, and.. well, let's just say it was hardly the place that inspired my enthusiasm for the web, though I'm sure lots of things have changed since then)...

Re: Web 2.0 Expo Berlin

Kristine — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:45:24 -0000

My, I was contacted for the Berlin expo as a blogger but said I'd rather be there as a journo to have a broader reach. Then I forgot aboout it, the scatterbrain journo mentality kicking in: this means I should really get me act together and register for press pass then? Hmm... never been to Berlin (which is great plus in my book: new place to explore... )

Re: Breaking Bloggers Block

Kristine — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:17:45 -0000

Sounds all too familiar. This time around I wrote one and a half post during the wknd as I knew yesterday's magazine deadline would keep me from blogging at least until today, let's see if that breaks the spell of procastrination-perfectionism that comes over me when I've been away from blogging too long - if only I finally can find a spare minute to blog soon.

Re: Subbing in the Age of Live Stories

Kristine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:47:19 -0000

If speed's one of the essential criterias of success, as it is online, a sub or digital desk could add value by tidying up copy written on a mobile phone, by adding links and context (more here etc), making the titles more SEO-friendly, adding captions, tagging, merging copy coming in from different sources etc.

I've worked for both the online equivalent of what you'd in print call a subs paper and a writers paper, and both were frustrating experiences. At the former, all copy was held up for ages (we're talking online here, speed....) as everything had to be "desked" and published by the subs, and your were frowned upon if you put links in the text as it gave the subs extra work.

At the opposite end I've also worked for a site where the editor expected everything to be pitch perfect and ready to publish when delivered - if it wasn't he'd go over it with red marks and often send it back. This didn't work either of course, as speed again is of the essence - so we'd loose stories to competitors. It would've been better just to publish immediately, and then correct - as the latter site's CMS would allow us to do that easily.

Still, in my experience, no matter how good their grammar etc. journalists tend to be lousy at subbing their own copy. I certainly am: I've done my share of subbing and copy-editing in my professional life, but I remain rather bad at doing that job as seamlessly for myself as I do it for others - especially when speed is essential. So I tend to lean towards the conclusion that we still need subs, but their role will be very different - they need to be experts not only on grammar, but SEO, tagging, coding, searhing etc

Re: Print: Still Good For Train Trips

Kristine — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:56:18 -0000

I fear it's nostalgia. Like you I hardly ever buy a daily paper, but when I do buy papers (mostly weekends) I treasure being able to sit down and enjoy them with a cup of coffee or tea.

It feels like a luxury; taking the time to sit down and actually read papers at a leisurely pace. It's partly a throwback to when a late mentor of mine would bring along all the Sunday papers and we'd read thru them over brunch at a quiet North London cafe: him - a former financial PR - analysing the stories for who were likely to have spun them;-)(ah, here's a hallmark alan parker, max clifford, xx story, it's got his fingerprints all over it..)

Partly a throwback to earlier newpaper reading memories of starting the day with papers over breakfast, which I always did before I left home - a habit I copied from my father.

However, my eight year younger sister never acquired any such newspaper reading habits. She never took to reading them while growing up, nor has she started doing so later. I think the idea of spending a leisurly Saturday or Sunday noon bent of the papers would be very foreign to her, more something she'd associate with boredom than with luxury. She'd be much more likely to relax with a bit of Facebook-softing, the latest TV-downloads or perhaps reading - but then it would be a book, not a newspaper.

Re: Some Good Reading About The Future of News

Kristine — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:23:57 -0000

Interesting, I'm looking forward to the silly season coming to the close this weekend in Scandinavia:-) July is certainly the main holiday month in Norway, and even my Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds have taken on a distinct holiday feel. In Norway the silly season is called the cucumber season though, denoting its distict (hyper)local roots. Once upon a time it was the season when vegetable prices dominated the local headlines. As I've increasingly come to see the value and major implications of news on vegetable prices as I've grown older, I've wondered aloud in various fora how the term "cucumber season" moved from hyperlocal news to banalities - are there any UK parallels here?

Re: Making Twitter Useful

Kristine — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:17:34 -0000

Interesting... frieds tell me I have to start twittering and if I do I should give it some time to see the benefits. And then there's Facebook... I think it's important for journalists to understand how these sites work, but at the same time I'm worried about the time aspect. For one, I work so much and constantly wish I had more time to spend on my blog where I do have a vibrant community of fellow media junkies - very valuable to me.