Paul Kelly, so itâs said, has form in slagging off at his boss Rupert Murdoch. Since Rupert announced that the internets were the future, and promptly bought MySpace for $850 million, orders have come down from the top to prepare all Newsâ papers for the Web 2.0 revolution.
There are a couple of interesting case studies of how Murdochâs vision is being made into a virtual reality â The Australian and The Courier-Mail.
The Courier-Mail was first off the starting blocks. Journos have been instructed that their copy, when written, is to be immediately posted to the net. Not fact-checked, not subbed. Immediacy, it seems, is the name of the new medium. There have been innumerable embarrassments resulting from this â stories appearing on the Courier-Mailâs myspace on news.com.au with factual errors, names spelled incorrectly and hideous grammatical malapropisms.
Though no doubt some academics like my Griffith University colleague Dr Paul Williams donât mind being promoted to Professor, even if itâs only apparently an honorary position and doesnât come with the 130k a year salary.
Some writers for The Courier-Mail, like the paperâs invariably astute political columnist Dennis Atkins, have made the transition seamlessly. Others have not â but the idea itself is an interesting one, and no doubt the standard of the first drafts placed on the web will improve in time. If bloggers (amateurs according to the bloggers vs. MSM standard line) can do it for free, surely Newsâ professionals can too.
But Chris Mitchellâs Australian, though normally going beyond the call of Murdochian duty in its political line (witness the culture wars and climate change denialism verve that the paper displays), seems to be a reluctant late comer to the virtualisation of the Murdoch press.
Perhaps egos come into play here. Itâs interesting to wonder how Paul Kelly feels about his column appearing on the online version of the paper as âPaul Kelly Blogâ?. Lo, how the mighty have fallen in the cause of the virtualised Murdoch empire?
Elsewhere: More from Jason at Catallaxy.
Interesting that we mere bloggers can generally get our posts right first time around, as opposed to the fine denizens of the Crawling Snail. We couldn’t possibly be better at their jobs than they are, now could we?
HWAts their prbolem? I alwaysys chcek my factsd adn post in it timley fahsion.
What’s a grammatical malapropism? Is it worse than the ungrammatical kind?
But seriously folks, the “blog” doesn’t feature the most recent column by the op-edder. Weird.
Apparently Rupert’s got that old-time climate change religion and now believes it’s all real.
Well Murdoch has understood the significance of the new medium and what it means, or doesn’t if they don’t adapt…Death.
Of course the teething problems will get sorted out over time and the professor will eventually get pulled back to Doctor.
If Paul Kelly doesn’t like it, he can always do a runner and go somehwhere else.
Most of us have worked in industries where change has been at warp speed. Kelly will soon see what it’s like.
Newspaper readership must be falling very quickly. I am now getting home delivery of The Australian for $4.95 a week and anyone who tries can get the same deal.
But I am still going to cancel if I can find a substitute security blanket. I need the crosswords, so/do/ku. etc, particularly in the mornings.
Murdock must have read the riot act because of recent times they have been ‘right’ over the top.
PS Spare a thought for the journalists. They are in a race to be the first and therefore long lunches are a No No.
Try ‘Murdoch’
Murdock! You crazy fool!
Yep, the Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt has long had a forum and now has his own blog.
Now, Joey, when have you ever moved at warp speed? You seem to to spend 24/7 operating as some type of professional blog fly.
“Itâs interesting to wonder how Paul Kelly feels about his column appearing on the online version of the paper as âPaul Kelly Blogâ?
Thus far, it doesn’t seem to have engendered any desire on the part of the great man to actually engage with the comments – though Matt Price appears to be getting into it. He’s even blogging Greg Sheridan’s somewhat – unmm – controversial take on GWB as the Harry Truman of Our Time.
I don’t think that they’ve quite embraced blogging as such…..
Here’s a question – can sometime make a living being a professional blogger? I reckon a few bloggers do it as at least a part-time occupation.
(one edit)
Some bloggers do make a living doing it, Sacha. Mark has written about this, I think…
I suppose we can stop seeing slurs of blogging in the MSM, now? Murdoch’s done a few backflips lately; I wonder if he’s doing a Hugh Hefner on us?
I think I remember something about it too – I wonder if any regulars here make money blogging?
Damn that needing to make money thing.
I don’t think they’ll really be blogging till they leave their protected sanctuary. I’d like to see Matt Price, Paul Kelly or whoever stepping down and getting into it here at LP, Road to Surfdom, or (it what would surely be hilarious) at Catallaxy. Could you imagine Kelly vs the Bird? Stoush!
“I’d like to see Matt Price, Paul Kelly or whoever stepping down and getting into it here at LP, Road to Surfdom, or (it what would surely be hilarious) at Catallaxy.”
We got an inkling of how that might play out when Sophie Masson and Kevin Donnelly stepped into the fray at Troppodillo only to discover that terms like “robust discussion” and “free and frank exchange of views” did not translate from dinner table debates, formalised panel discussions and op-ed exchanges to boozy, smoky, rooty-tooty blog threads the way they expected.
I can’t see Paul Kelly et al taking that step without blowing the whole objective insider schtick they’ve cultivated as the core of their pundit credibility. About the only big cat MSM pundit I can see who has successfully made the transition so far is Andrew Bolt, and that’s because he likes a fight and seems to have taken talkback radio as his model, eg: putting his own responses at the end of other comments, a format which suits his style.
“Journos have been instructed that their copy, when written, is to be immediately posted to the net. Not fact-checked, not subbed.”
Yes, funny how they’d throw away one of what they think is their main competitive advantages over blogs. On the other hand they’ll now discover the blogosphere is overflowing with fact-checking demons. Which they may or may not like. I’d have to check that.
Unsubbed blogs and websites for multimillion-dollar businesses is an extremely risky proposition. It’s okay for a blogger not worth suing to say whatever they like, including the odd libel, but the big dailies already have problems with lawsuits, and subs save them from even more.
funny how they’d throw away one of what they think is their main competitive advantages over blogs. On the other hand they’ll now discover the blogosphere is overflowing with fact-checking demons.
Nabs, are you suggesting that this might be the plan? To get masses of people who are online all the time anyway, to swarm all over News Ltd sites, fine-toothed combs in hand? Could work….
Laura, in Google Earth land, they call ‘em “benevolent magic elves” which is a much cuter way of invoking the invisible hand.
Anya.
Just sayin…
What about ex-Demons?
Hotness, into factual interpretations, and afraid of bunnies.
Just sayin…
Check out the Emma Caulfield entry in Wikipedia, mick…
Apparently she’s quite the libertarian….
But Xander didn’t know how lucky he was *in my opinion*
I think he did in the end. *sniff*
Paul Kelly would never invoke a Buffy reference in a comments thread.
Just sayin…
Have you tired of Kelly’s game…?…the moderate…the occasional critic of the Murdoch & Bush empire…the wise sage who feels obliged to lull you into the sleep of the dead…wow, the one who is willing to enter the court of the crimson king Howard…the suggestions rebound from white wall to ivory tower…Howard, King of all lands & states knowing & free tradish should partake from this route…& all of us in trust & hope & abject terror should follow the pre-determined, the true blue Corporate suck world of indifference…oh, but how strange…in the minimal light of a fear struck day we find ourselves on the same trail. Anchored to the studio of a pirate’s game…spinning in the gasoline age…how sweet tastes the smell of deceit…incredible!
A child awakens…& in response merges a terrified few…to stamp out, the difference…the child uses invisibility & slips thru…& rematerialises…to watch…to observe…the Insiders speak…to the land of the dead. The child is you.
True!
I will though:
<img src="http://www.sf-radio.net/buffy/charaktere/bilder/anya.jpg"
Bolt is a natural, but he’s been ahead of the News bunch for a while, Price I think will be their best in the long term.
Sheridan will be in for a shock if they ever went “live” as we do in our own daily blogging, he’s easily the weakest writer in their stable with nothing to hang on to except his Pentagon talking points.
It’ll be interesting to see how their writing lineup changes over the next few years as the natural blogging talent moves to the forefront.
Sophie Masson! That was funny.
HA! These old fossils can’t get it up anymore! We better send them some emails about where to order Viagra online. Hey, and now the Aussie army is really taking the dregs nowdays maybe Kelly could do a Phill Silvers routine over there for the Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt battalions…I’d like to see that.
I wrote this to Crikey three years ago; it’s still cached, and other than for the Abbott/Hanson reference, it still seems pretty timely, if I may humbly say so…