Media blogs: when to publish secrets
The BusinessWeek, January 15, 2007
One thing I've learned in two years as an MSM blogger. When we publish behind-the-scenes accounts of how our media sausages are made, the posts get picked up, read, commented. Inside dope is the closest thing media bloggers have to Brangelina. Jeff Jarvis points to a reported crackdown at the Daily Telegraph, where bloggers are told not to write about the paper or publish "tricks of the trade."
That's a ticket to irrelevance for bloggers. First, it deprives them of some of their most interesting material. Second, it makes it clear to them that their freedom to blog--which is precisely what makes blogging fun--is highly conditional. If I had management looking over my shoulder like that, I'd skiddadle off the official site and blog on my own (which, to be sure, entails other risks).
This isn't to say that publications don't have secrets that should be respected on blogs and elsewhere. I think the solution for publications in this new age is to sit down with a broad section of the staff, including bloggers, and to hammer out exactly what the secrets should be. Each secret should be justified, not because it's always been a secret, but because there are compelling reasons for it to remain one.
Through this process, I think, publications will find that many of the traditional secrets, including "tricks of the trade," really don't need to be secrets anymore. They'll also find that each secret they share helps to build community and trust. At the same time, the staff will understand and respect why some secrets must be defended.
