Falling Off A Blog

To sub or not to sub?

Judging by some of the comments under my last post, I wasn't entirely convincing when I said that, in some circumstances, introducing a subbing stage into the journalistic process can damage the user experience.

Let me try to explain what I mean.

The circumstances I am thinking of are those where the journalist and audience are interacting in a conversational way, in real-time (or close to it) - for example in a discussion forum, a live chat or a blog discussion. In these circumstances, having every word the journalist writes checked and possibly re-written by a sub can interfere with the dynamic.

The Web Production Desk

I’ve been giving some thought recently to the online equivalent of the magazine production desk.

We've done a lot of work with our writers over the past couple of years, helping them to transform themselves into digital journalists. And there is a reasonably clear digital migration path for our art editors/designers, taking responsibility for the look-and-feel and usability of our websites. But so far we haven't talked very much about the future for the people who work on our production desks.