As my company is going through a redesign of our website, I've been checking out the sites of other Maine publications to see how they handle online content -- mainly blogs. One I read frequently is Media Mutt on the Down East Magazine website. I like that Al Diamon keeps an eye out on Maine media and the ethical dilemmas, shoddy reporting, and hirings and firings. And he posts frequently -- because that's what you do when you have a blog.
Frequency is key. Other blogs on Down East's site are hardly frequent. Take Paul Doiron's Biblioblog. There are only two posts -- one in June of 2007 and the other in January of 2008. A book blog is a great idea...but this one is not working. They either need someone to pick it up and run with it or delete it from the site. It's sort of embarrassing.
Down East has a running list of their blogs on the left hand side of their site. It looks impressive...until you click on them and you realize they are not maintained. I took a look at the first few blogs in the list and this is what I found:
Ask a Local: hasn't been updated since 2/2009
Berth of Cool: hasn't been updated since 10/2008
Chocolatists Travel Log: hasn't been updated since 5/2009
Daicey Days: page doesn't exist
From Tap to Table: hasn't been updated since 3/2009
Why have all these blogs with no current content? Not only is it a disservice to their readers but it makes them look lazy. If you aren't going to maintain your blog, take it offline.
The interesting stories I consume on a daily basis.
Posts
Books I've Read in 2009
- Half Broke Horses
- Olive Kitteridge
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- The Burn Journals
- Beyond the Pale
- The Good Earth
- Little Bee
- Travels With Charley
- My Lobotomy
- Shanghai Girls
- The Memory Keeper's Daughter
- Audition
- Persepolis 2
- Persepolis
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
- I Was Told There'd be Cake
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- She's Come Undone
- In the Land of Invisible Women
- Red Leather Diary
- The Bonesetters Daughter
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
2 comments:
See, with this I never know if it's my call to take it off the site (as a blogger) or if it's the site administrator.
For example, I have a blog on Maine Business. I almost never update it, mostly because I forget (and it doesn't drive traffic to my site).
I keep thinking that if I published this content to the Maine Business site, it's sort of their call whether or not to keep it there since to me, I've done my part.
Also, since as a blogger I am already providing free content to a newspaper or magazine website, do I actually have to maintain it? Could there maybe be an incentive for me to maintain it (not necessarily money)? To me once the content is on a site, it's up to the site administrator to delete, archive, or just let be.
You're absolutely right, Mimi. When we redesigned the Down East website in March a lot of stuff was posted as "blogs" (my so-called Bibilioblog was in fact pieces I'd written for the Down East Books catalog). There was the desire to put as much online as possible, and we also had arrangements with prospective bloggers that simply didn't pan out. Your insightful post gives me a good incentive to go through the site and clear out the deadwood — including myself. That said, we do have six or seven bloggers who post at least weekly at DownEast.com. Al is just the most prolific.
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