Journalists must blog to maintain reader loyalty. This, in a nutshell, is the message that Google's European Vice President, Nikesh Arora, conveyed to Press Gazette, Britain's journalism Bible.
"All journalists who are going to be in this business for a while need to become bloggers," he told Press Gazette, explaining that blogs allow writers to turn themselves into brands and fend off competition.
Arora added that journalists have what it takes to be good blogger -- not only because they are used to communicating with words, but also because their profession has trained them to weigh all sides of a debate and strive to be objective. Both qualities are increasingly prized in bloggers.
His views are perhaps old hat in the U.S., where journo blogs -- many of which have sprouted up under the auspices of big publishing houses -- are an established phenomenon, happening anywhere from Good Housekeeping to Better Homes & Gardens. By contrast, with the notable exception of the Guardian, British journalism has been slightly slower in embracing the blogosphere.
Recently, however, Britain has experienced a blog boom. The online version of broadsheets such as the Daily Telegraph have all launched or revamped their blogs. Even tabloids have hit the blogosphere when The Sun's political commentator Trevor Kavanagh started "the blog politicians fear" last Monday. Expect magazines' sites and individual freelance writers to follow suit sometime soon.
... but I'd disagree that bloggers are increasingly starting "to...
