Online Journalism News

UK political blogs 'lag behind' their US equivalents

Political blog coverage in the UK lags well behind that in the US, two of the web's newest online publishers have claimed.

UK blogs have failed to replicate the success of powerful and influential US political sites like Wonkette and Politico because of the lack of a 'developed' online community this side of the Atlantic,   Lloyd Shepherd and Andrew Levy, co-founders of Messy Media, told Journalism.co.uk.

"I think Wonkette has been very successful at appealing to people who view politics as sport in the US," said Levy.

"If we were to try and do Wonkettte over here, I think it would fall flat, because the voice is not something that a British audience would respond to."

[Read the full interview with Messy Media here]

To coincide with the Labour Party Conference, Levy and Shepherd, this week, launched their first title, political blog Westmonster - claiming it provides a new British take on political blogging.

"Wonkette is very much a Washington title. I think we would like Westmonster to be more about politics in the round," added Shepherd.

"It's about making these people [politicians] into personalities. American politicians have bigger personalities than British ones and that dictates the way you write about these things."

Westmonster, which will be joined by five or six new blogs over the next year, will be Messy Media's only political title.

With their other titles, Messy Media admits they will not 'break any new ground' in terms of subjects, but hope to cover topics from a different angle to what's already out there.

Plans include a City blog focusing on the worker rather than the company.

"The City is written about in terms of reverence and in corporate terms, it's not written about in terms of that hundreds of thousands of people work in the city," explained Shepherd.

The idea of finding a new angle on well-trodden subjects will be used for blogs on motoring and journalism, as well as a celebrity title written for 'people with a brain'.

"What we are trying to do is to come up with a smaller amount of titles that appeal to a mass audience. Within one topical area, but not getting as granular as some of the existing blogs, professional or otherwise, that are out there," said Levy.

By launching a political blog focused on quality content, say Shepherd and Levy, they hope to remedy the damage they feel traditional media coverage has caused.

"Established media has turned politicians into these kind of objects of contempt," said Shepherd.

"You now get the problem on the Today programme where you can have a very high level political interview and nothing actually gets said.

"It's unfair and not particularly helpful and certainly not very interesting - it's much more interesting to see these people as human beings making decisions." 

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
blogging | usa | westmonster | messy media |

Sign up here for our free, daily email newsletter to get all the latest stories, jobs, tips and more.

Got a story? Email our news team: Laura Oliver; Judith Townend or telephone +44 (0)1273 384290. You can also follow us on Twitter: @journalismnews / @LauraOliver / @JTownend.