Daily Mirror Fans Blog

So Iv applied to write a Fans Blog for the Daily Mirror. I think it would be a great opportunity to get my name out there, get my writing read by a larger audience and, of course, let the truth be known about my football team, Reading FC. It would also give me the chance to keep my blogging regular, as no amount of all-bran is providing the posts that this site deserves. Although, as sarcastic as I am, Im not sure Il be able to match the work of Royals lover, Oliver Holt. Oh wait...

Anyway, so cross your fingers for me. Heres hoping Im the most interesting applicant they get for Reading FC. And if not the most interesting, then the only applicant. Which lets face it, is one and the same.

The power of blogging...

I feel like a corner has been turned on this blogging lark. Despite having so far recieved only 40 odd hits (although the new hit counter has only been up about a week and therefore has missed most of my posting craze), a post of mine has travelled far and wide across the internet, reaching people from across the globe.

A post of mine was picked by one of my lecturers, Paul Bradshaw, who wrote about it on his blog. His take on the hilariously bad video attracted a great deal of attention from fellow bloggers, prompting comment numbers that my humble site can only dream about. For those who wonder why he did not credit me, I asked him not to, as I have a working relationship with the company involved.

As Bradshaw himself notes, people are now blogging about this video as far away as Hungary and Australia. Meanwhile, comments have been flying around, meaning even more people are being linked to it. Lucas,writing on WordBlog comments: "That was painful to watch. The good news is probably none of their readers did." Unfortunately for the Reading Evening Post he was wrong. I did.

So when I started writing this blog and thought nobody was watching, I was wrong. Whilst my hit count remains dormant, at least my posts are actually proving a success, albeit for other peoples blogs!

Reading Evening Post storms online

Having worked for the Reading Evening Post for almost an entire week now, I have not failed to notice the vast improvement in it's website since my placement at the company in March 2006. They seem to be waking up to the potential of online journalism, and have placed a much greater emphasis on interactivity. I was particularly impressed with the way in which they have utilised comments into each story, with some articles recieving well over double figures. Not only are the website encouraging healthy debate about the town, and tapping into their crucial market of middle-class workers who read from their desk, but they are incorporating the website's good work into the newspaper itself.

A double page spread has been dedicated to reader views and comments has been set up in the popular newspaper. Comments from the stories are used, as well as letters, debates and images sent in by readers, to form a 'viewpoint' section. This shows the website and publication working closer together, which can only be a good thing with the technological changes that are threatening the industry somewhat. It is about time too, with the site attracting almost 700,000 page impressions a month. And that information is 9 months old, with the figures only likely to have increased since.

However, not all is well with the website. An admirable Community Blogs section has been set up, but embarassingly does not seem to work, at least not on my Internet Explorer window. They could do worse than follow the fine example set by the Birmingham Mail Blog, which despite getting few comments is setting an early standard in newspaper blogs.

Similar inadequacies can be found in the Post's message board. This ugly, plain layout is not winning any fans amongst it's readership, with very few users. In fact, there is only one real discussion amongst it, and even that petered out a long time ago. A solution would be to try and create something similar to the pioneering Birmingham Mail, whose forums attract far greater interactivity. They even became the source for a story that I scooped the newspaper itself for!

The site has no doubt improved since I last worked there, but the webmaster must not stop there. The internet is the future for newspapers, and the Reading Evening Post still has a lot of work to do to maximise its potential.

My latest story

Forgetfulness comes in many forms, some people lose their keys, others walk into a room and forget completely why they went there. I forget to post blogs about my stories. You would think it should come naturally, write a story, and then follow it up with a blog about how I found it. Ahh well C'est la vie.

This story was a good one too. As Paul Bradshaw says on his highly regarded blog "Todd may also have scooped the Birmingham Mail". You should definately click that second link, Im pretty impressed to have been mentioned so many times! As if that wasn't exciting enough, another highly respected journalist Martin Stabe linked to Paul's blog post on his, meaning thousands of people may have seen my scoop. Im becoming famous!

Anyways, back to the story itself, I found it on the Birmingham Mail forum. This was quite funny, because upon searcing their archives, it suggested that they had failed to pick up on the story themselves. I quoted a few fellows off the forum, and did a bit of research to find previous convictions in Birmingham of the same vein. Finally, I gave West-Midlands Police a ring on their press number for a quote. I was told that it was not Police business, but it was still worthy of a quote.

So there you have it, I now have one more story to write for this week (as well as an audio piece that will struggle to get done). I had a fantastic idea for the story, but unfortunately you'll have to bear with me on that one as Iv completely forgotten it...