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MNHQ

Policywonk's MN rep at 'Commentariat vs Bloggertariat: who's winning?'

9 replies

GeraldineMumsnet · 19/06/2009 15:14

It's on Monday evening and the panel line-up is: David Aaronovitch (Times commentator), Martin Bright (New Deal of the Mind founder, and blogger), Iain Dale (political blogger and publisher), Mick Fealty (political blogger) and Anne Spackman (Times' comment editor).

Any points you'd like PW to make on your behalf?

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MNHQ

GeraldineMumsnet · 19/06/2009 16:04

I'm kind of hoping policywonk appears to explain it

MNHQ

GeraldineMumsnet · 19/06/2009 17:10

Any aspersions entirely deserved. Horrid, sloppy typing

It's part of a series of events called Media Today, Media Tomorrow. Organised by Editorial Intelligence, chair Julia Hobsbawm.

Presumably, do-we-still-need-professional-commentators-when-we've-got-bloggers sort of debate.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/06/2009 23:00

Oh no PolicyWonk, we didn't mean for you to feel pressganged! The nice lady who's organising this particular shindig told me not to worry when said I thought I couldn't come because they already had a MN person there - i.e. you. (Think they think of you as a MN bod cos we sent you along to the last jobby that they did). So we thought you'd been invited as a MN rep. Hate to think of you feeling exploited in any way - please shout if you'd rather go as a non-aligned PolicyWonk - it's not a problem.

I do think the broader subject is quite interesting from a Mumsnet standpoint, as it sort of mirrors the tension between solo "professional" experts vs the collective lay (i.e. non-charging) experts that was imho the real animus of the Gina Ford v MN case. As Onebat points out, the internet offers so much collective wisdom for free, it's hard to charge for it these days.

But I suppose the valuable thing for most people is a trusted filter. After all we now have access to so much information and opinion and there simply isn't the time to sift through it ourselves. So in a way trusted filters are becoming more valuable, whether they're commentators, bloggers or both.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 12:45

Hello all - sorry for delay on getting back on this, I had to find out from Jules (sales) if it was indeed a paid-for chat or not! Turns out it is, but at a reduced rate (£1,000) intented to cover cost of admin of it only really - ie editorial time spent liaising, moderating, archiving and publishing (plus fruit shoots and sausage rolls for the chat itself). Strictly entre nous, and not to be shared with Waitrose PR people we would have had them on paid for or not because I think it's such an interesting subject and the movie End of the Line is so hot at the moment. But I take the point about clarity and maybe we should add a sponsored by button to all paid-for webchats so you know which ones are and which aren't (it's about 50-50)?

Nb with regard to louder voices being secured by payment, I'm not sure that holds when members are free to contribute freely to the chat and raise whatever opinions they have on the issues in hand. If we were in the business of deleting criticism then I could see that would be problematic but we make it clear to anyone who comes on for a chat that we have absolutely no control over you whatsoever .

Hope that explains things - we'll get to work on a sponsored by button.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 12:50

I don't think so - was responding to wittering's post earlier down?

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 13:08

Yes I can see that Wittering but we only do webchats if we think the subject/ person involved is going to be of interest/ useful. We have turned down an awful lot of folks either on the grounds that they are dull or just wrong (eg Macdonalds).

Having said that we think companies who get the chance to engage should pay a bit for the privilege precisely because, as you say, they are getting air time. It's the same principal as product tests really, which we also do on Talk. Ideally we are always looking for a happy combination of interesting subject matter, something for you (eg Jogglers or Dysons) and a wee something for us to meet the costs. It's a fine balancing act of course and we are very aware of the risks of messing with the sanctity of Mumsnet Talk believe me!

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 14:33

Folks can of course always choose not to see stickies in customise Talk...

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 14:34

We're going to unsticky this one now, in favour of Daisy Goodwin who's on tomorrow. (Won't surprise you to know she's not paying though).

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 22/06/2009 15:34

But Swedes they're not mutually exclusive! We rule out about 2/3rds of chats on the basis that they don't work for us...
So really it's 50% of 30% ie 15%!

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