Tagged: Philip John

Which blog platform should I use? A blog audit

When people start out blogging they often ask what blogging platform they should use – WordPress or Blogger? Tumblr or Posterous? It’s impossible to give an answer, because the first questions should be: who is going to use it, how, and what and who for?

To illustrate how the answers to those questions can help in choosing the best platform, I decided to go through the 35 or so blogs I have created, and why I chose the platforms that they use. As more and more publishing platforms have launched, and new features added, some blogs have changed platforms, while new ones have made different choices to older ones. Continue reading →

Hyperlocal voices interviewed elsewhere

While I’ve been blogging my series of interviews with hyperlocal bloggers I’ve come across a few more elsewhere that may be of interest – and thought it worth linking to them here.

Talk About Local is running a ‘Ten Questions’ series of interviews along the same lines.

Nick Booth of Podnosh (which I work for) is writing a blog about hyperlocal bloggers on the BBC website. He has also  interviewed Steph Jennings and James Clark of WV11 – audio embedded below:

[audio:http://audioboo.fm/boos/194465-steph-jennings-and-james-clark-of-wv11.mp3]

I recently had Ventnor Blog founder Simon Perry talk to students on the MA in Online Journalism that I teach at Birmingham City University. Samuel Negredo filmed part of his visit, which can be seen on his blog post about the visit and is also embedded below:

Also interviewed elsewhere – by Philip John – is Brownhills Bob.

Lara O’Reilly interviews Dave Lee about Olympic Borough.

And in the US, Bob Yoder of the Redmond Neighborhood Blog is interviewed by Outside.in, which also gets some tips from Elllie Ashford in Annandale.

Hyperlocal Voices: Philip John (The Lichfield Blog)

Hyperlocal voices - Lichfield Blog

In another Hyperlocal Voices post, Philip John talks about how The Lichfield Blog was launched to address a gap in local news reporting. In less than 2 years it has taken on a less opinionated tone and more “proper reporting”, picking up national recognition and covering its costs along the way.

Who were the people behind Lichfield Blog, and what were their backgrounds before setting it up?

Ross Hawkes founded the blog in January. Ross is a senior lecturer in journalism at Staffs Uni and previously worked at BPM. He started his journalistic career at the now defunct Lichfield Post. There’s also Nick, a semi-professional photographer who helps out with the creative side of things and I look after the techy side of the web site as looking after WordPress is where I specialise. We also have a good group of contributors and a couple of advisors, many of whom are either current or former journalists at local newspapers.

What made you decide to set up the blog?

Ross’ wife heard sirens going past their house one day and was curious as to where they were going. Ross realised no-one was reporting those kind of low-level goings on and that with the beat reporter disappearing there was a gap for community-focused news. Continue reading →

Some other online innovators for some other list

Journalism.co.uk have a list of this year’s “leading innovators in journalism and media”. I have some additions. You may too.

Nick Booth

I brought Nick in to work with me on Help Me Investigate, a project for which he doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It’s his understanding of and connections with local communities that lie behind most of the successful investigations on the site. In addition, Nick helped spread the idea of the social media surgery, where social media savvy citizens help others find their online voice. The idea has spread as far as Australia and Africa.

Matt Buck and Alex Hughes

Matt and Alex have been busily reinventing news cartoons for a digital age with a number of projects, including Drawnalism (event drawing), animated illustrations, and socially networked characters such as Tobias Grubbe. Continue reading →

Salon Sunday June 13 8pm: Philip John of the Lichfield Blog

Salon Sunday is an experimental live chat on the Wardman Wire blog at 8pm on Sundays, aiming to encourage conversations across politics, media, technical and other online niches.

q-photo-lichfield-sammyThis Sunday our interviewee will be Philip John, who founded the Lichfield Blog. The blog is a local news blog opened after the local newspaper closed down, and focuses on “all things Cathedral city since January 2009“. The site has three main editors, a host of contributors, and currently attracts a readership in excess of 10k unique visitors each month. You can read more about the site here, or follow on Twitter at lichfieldblog or philipjohn.

Phil also has an interest in the future of news media – for example what is going to happen to local media, and what opportunities will be opened up when Rupert Murdoch introduces the Times Online paywall – and is convenor of the West Midlands Future of News group.

I’ll publish a longer profile of the blog on Friday at around lunchtime at the Wardman Wire.

If you have any questions to put down in advance, or want to be kept up to date by email, please make a comment below, please leave a comment below.

I’ve tried a couple of different formats for these experimental webchats – one heavily Twitter based, the other having a podcast interview published first followed by an informal chat. This week I’m announcing the interviewee a bit earlier in the week.

This week the pattern, starting at 8pm, will be:

  1. 20-30 minutes interview about the Lichfield Blog.
  2. 30 minutes follow up conversation.

Any help in promoting the event is welcome.

JEEcamp is full – but the fringe event still has places

If you arrive the evening before JEEcamp next week you should take the chance to attend the Future of News fringe event ‘Entrepreneurship Special’, which features Marc Reeves, ex-Birmingham Post editor and current editor of The Business Desk West Midlands. The event is organised by The Lichfield Blog‘s Philip John, who is also well worth hearing from (and may be an award-winner by the end of this week).

It’s free.

That is all. Book here.

I've moved my blog – here's why

In the past few days the Online Journalism Blog has moved to hosting on Journal Local, a platform primarily aimed at hyperlocal publishers.

I’ve moved the blog for a number of reasons. Firstly, the platform offers specialist support that doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else. Philip John, who built Journal Local, is an experienced hyperlocal publisher (of the Lichfield Blog) himself, and he knows his stuff. He has already been able to provide technical assistance on all sorts of things I don’t always have the time to look into, from themes and plugins to sorting things out when the blog has been the target of hackers.

In fact, just having someone around who knows when the blog is being targeted by hackers is going to give me a bit more peace of mind.

Secondly, I want to support what Philip is trying to do. Journal Local is an attempt to find one sustainable business model for hyperlocal publishing. It’s not only well thought-out and executed but, for me, could make it easier for hyperlocal publishers generally to continue to operate both editorially and commercially.

It’s a freemium service, with a free, bespoke platform for those who are trying out hyperlocal publishing, but also – in the premium version – more control and support for existing publishers who are looking to make their operations more professional. Both are expanding markets.

And although Journal Local hasn’t yet officially launched, already North West Sheffield News and Inside the M60 have signed up, and the Future of News website is using the platform too.

A key element for me is that Journal Local isn’t just a technical service but an information service as well. If you’ve met Philip, you’ll know he’s an important part of the hyperlocal movement and always ready to offer help to other bloggers and publishers. I think that’s key in any new media business – that it’s a vocation for the founder.

Particularly interesting are the features tailored to hyperlocal site owners and online journalists. The basic setup comes with plugins that pull from TheyWorkForYou.com, WriteToThem.com and Opening Times – as well as an Addiply plugin that allows publishers to instantly sell advertising. The service will also be bolstered in the near future by features that take advantage of such great tools as OpenlyLocal and Patient Opinion, among others.

In that context, I’d much rather give the money I currently pay on hosting and domain name registration to Journal Local. It’s a no-brainer.

And I may well start recommending that students running their own hyperlocal operations use the free version of the service.

In the meantime, I guess if you want to use it yourself you’d need to contact Philip John on Twitter or something.

Presentation: Law for bloggers and journalists (UK)

Yesterday I hosted a session on law for my MA Online Journalism students, which I thought I would embed below.

Some background: I teach all my sessions in a coffee shop in central Birmingham – anyone can drop in. This week I specifically invited local bloggers, and so the shape of the presentation was very much flavoured by contributions from The Lichfield Blog‘s Philip John; Nick Booth from Podnosh and BeVocal; Talk About Local‘s Nicky Getgood; Hannah Waldram of the Bournville Village Blog; Gavin Wray, Matthew Mark, and Mike Rawlins of Stoke’s Pits N Pots. The editor of the Birmingham Post Marc Reeves also came for an hour to share his own experiences in the regional press.

Two things occurred to me during the process of preparation and delivery of the session. The first is that law in this context is much broader: as well as the classic areas for journalists such as defamation, you have to take into account online publishing issues such as terms and conditions, data protection and user generated content.

Secondly, I’ve long been an advocate of conversational teaching styles (one of the reasons I teach in a coffee lounge) and this was a great example of that in practice. The presentation below is just a series of signposts – the actual session lasted 4 hours and included various tangents (some of which I’ve incorporated into this published version). Experiences in the group of students and guests ranged across broadcasting, print, photography, online publishing, academic study, and international law, and I came out of the session having learned a lot too.

I hope you can add some more points, examples, or anything I’ve missed. Here it is: