Blogs are, of course, nowadays ubiquitous, as the democratisation of opinion they allow means that there’s a public forum for everyone to express theirs, if they so choose. But is anyone reading them all? I’m always gratified by the responses I get to this one, both privately amongst people who talk to me about what I’ve written, and by posting public responses.
Though posting here every day has become an increasingly significant part of what I do — and certainly the first job that I complete each day — it is still far from my only job; so I was intrigued to read Charlotte Higgins, who has been The Guardian’s arts correspondent for the last four years, state in a feature in The Guardian on Wednesday that after being “a reporter who tried to fit blogging in around the edges of my life, I’m about to move online. From this week, blogging will take its place at the heart of what I do.”
Charlotte has duly launched a rolling blog, where she can potentially post updates throughout the day.
In fact, she’s so far confined herself to a maximum of three entries each day, but they’re, of course, not the only blogs that The Guardian posts daily in their extensive (and, I daresay, expensive) coverage of each discipline (and in which I take part, too, from time to time). In a world of shrinking arts coverage in the papers themselves, as we have to fight our own corners, in every sense, of the pagination (which is diminishing as advertising revenues fall across the board), the web is capable of producing a new breadth and depth to the potential coverage. Charlotte suggests, “My blog is, of course, a small and extremely insignificant part of a revolution in the arts, and in the way newspapers now cover them.”
Actually, there’s something very significant going on in this revolution, because someone still has to pay for this, and the fact that The Guardian are committing Charlotte’s full-time salary to generating this content speaks volumes. (The Stage pays me a monthly retainer, too, for this blog, but it’s far from a full-time wage!) But it’s the volume I’m starting to worry about; while one of the good things about blogs is that they are not limited by space, there is a limit to time - both of the journalists trying to churn it out, but also in the ability of readers to consume it all.
A fellow print journalist friend once pointed out to me that I sometimes produce the equivalent of a daily feature here, but at least I only do it once a day, so I don’t have to keep coming back here to update it, and neither do you to read it! The world, of course, doesn’t stop turning when the presses stop rolling - newspapers can only ever provide a snapshot of the news and views of the moment they were printed (or at least sent to print) - but the web is a hungry animal that stops for no one. And the fact that I can publish this instantly, the moment I have finished writing, naturally gives it a much faster turn-around.
But it still needs time - to write, as well as to digest. And I can’t simply stay at home to do so, either. At least my main job still gets me out; writing about the theatre means you can’t simply be an armchair blogger, but actually have to get out there, see things and meet people, or there’d be no fresh material — unless, of course, you simply trawl the news and other blogs for things to comment on yourself. That may, of course, be precisely what I’ve just done in commenting on Charlotte’s new initiative. But while blogging about blogs puts them into a self-referential spin-cycle, it’s a debate that looks set to run and run, and I am now inevitably part of.
I coincidentally also found myself yesterday as part of one of my own reporting stories elsewhere: I was writing up a news story on the second Spotlight On… series of conversations to the Shaw Theatre, and I had to report that on October 1 the guest host that would be interviewing Ben Vereen would be me! It’s another example of the kind of job that gets me out of the flat and office - and, as when I hosted the Michael Ball conversation, duly gives me something to blog about, in turn.
Charlotte Higgins here.
Interesting post, Mark. It's perhaps worth pointing out I won't be abandoning print: either in relation to news, or features, or op-ed pieces (as the standfirst for my piece in G2 suggested somewhat misleadingly). The balance will change, though. And the idea is I'll be out and about, blogging about things I see and learn about, rather than living entirely caught within the world-wide web. Anyway. Out of the self-referential spin-cycle and into the sun, methinks! And see you at the theatre!
guardian.co.uk/charlottehiggins