Adding to the conversation is key to reporting
February 15, 2008 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Business
I don’t break a lot of stories here first. Sometimes I get a hot tip, but often I miss the “first post” mark, I’ve gotten over that (mostly) so what I focus on now is making sure what I tell you is something that you can use.
I saw this post on Blog Herald this week, it’s been open in a tab for a while (I am a tab addict I admit it) and finally read through it again today. This “when not to post” point caught my eye straightaway:
I have nothing new to add to the conversation. One subject I cover is technology, so I watch Techmeme hourly to see what other tech bloggers are writing about. Over time, I’ve become aware of a “Techmeme pile up” where many tech bloggers fire off a quick post and link to the top story. Many of the secondary blogs (of which I am a part) tend to reiterate points others have made while a few offer original perspectives. In order to cut through the repetitive noise, it’s often worth it to hold back, and post later with a unique perspective. Source: When Not To Post : The Blog Herald
You might have noticed I tend to blog late at night (Marshall and I seem to keep similar hours) part of the reason is that I spend most of the “work day” helping the bloggers here at b5 and reading the other part is that I like to absorb what the coverage has been on the issue du jour.
Yesterday I didn’t get overlay.tv posted first, not even close. I could have, I had all the info ahead of time, but I didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t though. Reading through the coverage I didn’t get the feeling that folks had tried it. Big gap, IMHO. If I’m going to tell you about something, I think you’d like me to have tried it, thought about it, analyzed it. It’s the least I can do.
This is something that I encourage the b5 bloggers to do as well. There is a time to be first, but if you can’t be first, be smarter. Fill in the gaps in what other people are saying. I ask myself what is missing and see if I can answer that.
Maybe then it’s not when not to post but rather when not to post right away.
