New blog for the world's editors

Newspaper editors from around the world will soon be contributing to a co-operative blog run by the World Editors' Forum, designed to help editors address practical issues of newsroom management and editorial quality.

Currently running as a pilot project, the blog will launch fully on 1 March. Contributions will be made from editors and deputy editors from the New York Times, The Times, El Pais, La Stampa, Aftenposten and Yomiuri Shimbun, among others.

The blog is managed by Bertrand Pecquerie, director of the World Editors' Forum, who has been writing for the pilot blog since 12 January.

"Editorial quality is the main asset of newspapers and media groups," said Mr Pecquerie.

"The forum was born to improve newsroom management and encourage brain-storming sessions among editors from around the world. I consider the editors' weblog as an intranet in the editors' community."

Current topics under examination include 'tabloid versus broadsheet editions', 'is blogging journalism?' and 'convergence - the multi-platform newsroom'.

"Every day, an editor has several issues to manage. If our blog can only solve one of his issues, we’ve done it!" he told dotJournalism.

The World Editors Forum was established 10 years ago by the World Association of Newspapers and has a global network of 5,000 editors. A blog is the perfect tool to develop this community, said Mr Pecquerie, sharing industry news and advice in an informal way.

Around 70 per cent of sources for news on the site are based in the US and the UK, so Mr Pecquerie is keen to build relationships with other international publishers so that the blog will have a truly international outlook.

"I also believe in 'events weblogs' for covering big events for a limited period of time," he said.

"To me, what The Guardian is doing with its 'Hutton Inquiry' weblog is an example of good journalism on the web."

See also:
http://www.editorsweblog.org
http://www.wan-press.org
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/special/0,10627,1002839,00.html

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