Comments on: Where are the Scottish media blogs?

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:58:02 +0000

Thanks Stephen. I knew of Craig McGill and Stewart Kirkpatrick but not the others. Looks like a good list of blogs to keep an eye on.

By: Stephen Rafferty

Stephen Rafferty — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:54:25 +0000

There are a few Scottish media/PR blogs on the go written by freelance outfits. Admittedly in my case not as high brow as The Hootsman or Herald and unashamedly has tittle tattle but each to their own. Check out http://www.surepr.blogspot.com/ and other links for Shaun Milne, Scott Douglas, Craig McGill and Stewart Kirkpatrick are on my blog roll.

By: Gus A

Gus A — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:45:20 +0000

God please not a Scottish Guido.

Maybe its because the Scottish Media is shite blogging abouit shite media would be dull?

PS Lets just ignore Iain Dale

By: Richard Havers

Richard Havers — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:25:40 +0000

Your point about the Scotsman is spot on. There would seem to be a gap in the market for a Scottish Guido

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:24:35 +0000

Nah. I used to have a separate field for OpenID, but it was optional. But I decided it was silly to have two fields for your URL. But this isn’t working quite the way I want it to… I’ll have a look tomorrow.

By: http://snptacticalvoting.blogspot.com/

http://snptacticalvoting.blogspot.com/ — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:47:31 +0000

yeah, sorry, I meant the “dead tree” version that sits in the top right corner of the letters pages.

No worries about the Open ID thing. I thought you were making commenters jump through a few extra hopes to test just how much they wanted to say something…!

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:47:26 +0000

Jeff, there’s a blogs section of the Scotsman? Or is this the “dead tree” version you’re talking about?

By the way, sorry for the strangeness being caused by the OpenID thing just now. I’ll look into sorting it out tomorrow.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:43:23 +0000

Great post Duncan. I’ve kind of thought the gist of what you say though not been conscious of it if that makes sense. That is, I’d read “Blether with Brian”, enjoy it and then be a bit frustrated that’s there nowehere else in media-land to get another take.

I think a part of it might be linked to the shockingly poor comments the Scotsman and Herald receive. Why would Johnston Press and journalists want to humour the numpties who leave such juvenile, squabbling chat?

I have seen the blogs section of the Scotsman has moved into better territory with posts from Labour Home, Two Doctors and Calum Cashley. Maybe this crossover is a bit of a start to brining main stream media and blogging closer together.

By: http://ideasofcivilisation.blogspot.com/

http://ideasofcivilisation.blogspot.com/ — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:20:05 +0000

I suspect it’s because of something you mention – that blogs are seen as competition. There is perhaps also the chance that blogs are seen as ‘odd’ because of the ferocity of points that are made on some online newspapers’ comments sections.

It could also be due to critical masses. The blogs you talk about in England will attract many more readers (say 10 times, simply on a Barnett basis!). This might help justify their existence.

In Scotland though there could be a fear that having a blog might not only cost them readers in the ‘real’ paper but also that the total number of readers would be so small as to be a waste of time. Of course perhaps the number of Welsh media bloggers undermines this idea.

It might be none of these reasons. But I suspect these points are at least part of the rationale.

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:35:55 +0000

Yup. Still pretty impressive on David Cornock’s part though. I can’t think of a Scottish journalist who does that sort of thing. Iain Macwhirter has a blog, but I think it’s mostly recycled newspaper columns.