'UK newspapers run the best blogs '
I was struck by this sentiment from a British newspaper executive that Adrian reported under Chatham Rules a while back:
This person had "no interest in UK blog content... didn’t rate UK blogosphere - UK newspapers have already occupied that opinion territory and run the best blogs." It reminded me of Andrew Grant-Adamson's musings and investigations, and the debate these sparked, in the earlyish days of UK newspaper blogs.
It is ...eh... a long way to have travelled in such a short span of time, from not really getting it (late 2006) to having occupied this niche entirely (spring 2008), I thought to myself. I also thought it was a rather interesting notion to 'occupy' a realm some would liken to the realm of human conversation.
The whole idea of the media industry, especially the publicly financed part of it, using its financial muscles to 'occupy' all attractive niches is also an interesting one, although, in this brave new world of ours, where everyone with access to an internet connection can be his or her own publisher, it seems to be a bit optimistic to say the least. Especially if you take these stats, that put political bloggers and 'one man bands' Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale ahead of the likes of ITN and Guardian Politics, into account...
There is of course that old adage of "lies, damned lies and statistics" to consider, which Guido Fawkes explores a bit further here. Still, this does seem to contradict the notion that UK newspapers have successfully occupied 'that opinion territory'...
Of course, it may be that I'm putting too much into one word and getting all obsessed about proprietorial language, but the words we choose can say so much which lenses we see the world through.
I'm all for media organisations joining the conversation, and applaud those who have journalists who succeed in leading it - I can think of a few who do exactly that, or come very close - but occupy? That's what you do with hostile territories, right?
