Lessons in new media from a 14 year old

I’d like to introduce you to Matt Renner. He’s a fellow New Zealander and blogger. The similarities probably end there. Matt is 14.

I’ve never met Matt, but I’ve learned about some cool things because of his blog, where I’ve been lurking for a couple of weeks, and helped his page views tip over the 1000 mark.

If you are in the new media arena, you should read him and/or others like him, who take the trouble to detail what catches their eye and what makes them engage. It’s a valuable insight into where we are all heading.

In his most recent post Matt’s listed some new directions for his blog and theone which hits the spot for me is :

• I would like to become more of a “specialist” in one topic and blog just on that topic.

Matt, this is for you, and anyone else who’s currently blogging (partly because your blog doesn’t seem to want to take comments at the moment, but that’ll be WordPress’s fault, not yours)

I can definitely recommend being a specialist, but it’s always good to fling in something that is of interest to you which is ‘off topic’. Chances are that your audience will be interested in it too because if they read you regularly they will find they have things in common with you.

Don’t be rigid. If you find your tastes changing and that you are drawn towards different topics after a while, follow them.

And remember that ‘adults’ are usually just making it up as they go along. They don’t necessarily know more than you do. Be patient with them and help them along without making them feel stupid. You’ll go far.

Press Gazette is dead – but the blog could live on

Even though the Press Gazette publication is gone, it looks as though a part of it may live on. Martin Stabe aims to move the informative blog to his own site.

I’ve met Martin on several occasions and he’s one of those people who ‘gets it’. He largely single-handedly, brought a wave of innovation to the PG website and his weekly commentary on how new media meets traditional publishing is always a worthwhile read.

Martin, good luck for the future and I’ll keep reading as long as you’re publishing, even if it’s only your weblinks! 

(The other area of the site I enjoyed was the AOL-sponsored Discuss Journalism. The Press Gazette hosted discussion area is seperate from the AOL one of the same topic, which is confusing, but I hope one of them stays around.)

Rob McGibbon writes:

I can’t help but think there is a dark, foreboding irony that the newspaper industry’s trade magazine should fold at this time . . . What could prove to be a metaphor for newspapers across the land has just happened in microcosm with Press Gazette’s hollow death. And it all happened with barely a shrug.