I HAVE long had the belief that freelance journalists could use a blog to run a news service in their speciality and laid out some first steps in a piece called setting up a blog.
And it looks as though it is going to be something that journalists, both freelance and staff, are going to have to seriously consider as redundancy stalks many a newsroom.
So much so that when TypePad offered a Bailout Program for Journalists they were taken aback by the interest, as many, many people signed up to learn more.
Having used TypePad for around five years I do think it is the best option for people who want to spend time writing and not tweaking and updating code.
So if you do take up the option offered by TypePad and want an un-official answer to questions feel free to leave a comment below and I'll do my best to help.
If you want to take a look over what others are doing these sites that I've been involved with are run off TypePad:
Craig, I know you'd highlight this anyway, but I thought I'd mention that TypePad has recently introduced a feature that allows the author to change the URL of a post or page. This is something that WordPress has had for a while but only recently made available to all users, as opposed to self-hosted WP blogs. I didn't check if TypePad's URL tweaking feature is extended onto basic (i.e. unpaid) accounts, but the very existence of it makes TP very, very competitive, especially for those who can't be bothered upgrading to a new WP version every few months. :-)
Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Julia | November 19, 2008 at 14:53
Hi Julia, as you say giving people more control over the URL will be a great help.
And for others still wondering if a blog is worth it, check out what journalist Kristine Lowe has written about the benefits of having a blog to earning commissions and other work:
http://kristinelowe.blogs.com/kristine_lowe/2008/11/the-journalist-bailout-program.html
Craig
Posted by: Craig McGinty | November 19, 2008 at 16:32