Poliblog Perspective

I’ve posted a couple of times recently about the Slugger Awards, and the Slugger O Toole blog.

Here’s a nugget to chew on which throws some light on why Slugger is further integrated into the local political process than any other blog in the country: Slugger’s penetration of it’s local market is up to five times higher than any other site (to my knowledge, anyway).

A note on numbers: I am making the comparison by comparing Unique Visitors (representing how many individual computers have visited the website) for the largest political site in a country (England, Wales etc.) with the population of the Local Market. It’s not a perfect comparison, since the percentage of blog traffic from outside the locality (country) varies, but it is good enough for this broad conclusion.

Site / Absolute Uniques per Month / Population / “Market Penetration”

• Northern Ireland: Slugger O Toole ( 23,000 ) vs 1.75 million = 1.3%.
• Scotland: Mr Eugenides (~15-16,000 ) vs 5.2 million = 0.3%.
• (*) Wales: Ordovicius (~6-10,000) vs 2.9 million = 0.3%.
• England: Guido Fawkes (110,000) vs 51 million = 0.2%.

(*) In Wales there are several blogs at roughly the same level.

I’m not claiming huge accuracy for these figures, but the difference is startling even if my numbers are some way off. The sources are all from hosted web counter services.

It looks as though Slugger may have crossed several thresholds the others have not yet reached for an independent political site, and that - combined with the fact that it is 6 years old, nonpartisan and is read (for example) by nearly all Northern Ireland Parliamentarians - may account for the site’s ability to impact in some broader way on the political process itself.

This is a broad brush thesis and I am open to comment / correction.

Wrapping Up

I’d be interested to see the comparative local figures for English regional political sites - such as The Stirrer (Birmingham).

A real Friday post. The website bankaholic.com has been sold for $15m.

From Paidcontent.org:

Financial info site BankRate is expanding its financial product listings, as it’s acquiring Bankaholic, which provides info on deposits, savings accounts, and money market accounts. The company will pay $12.4 million up front, with another $2.5 million possible earnout over the next 12 months. Bankaholic’s sole employee John Wu will assist in the transition and remain for an unspecified period of time.

Interesting points

• The blog is built on Wordpress.
• It is run by a single person - Johns Wu, and has been purchased by bankrate.com.
• The traffic is not *that* high, which tells us something about the value of financial niche markets.
• The blog is relatively new (the domain was first registered in 2006).

Bankaholic Traffic

This is the graph of estimated traffic over the last two years from Quantcast.

Introduction

This is the second posts showing how I try and apply headings on the Wardman Wire. The aims are to provide appropriate “chunking” of the content, and for the headings to provide a “map” of the article or argument. A good test is to take all the text out of the argument, and see if the list of headngs still tells you what the item is about.

The Report After Editing

On Thursday this week we’ll be starting a multi-Parliamentary roundup from multiple personalities in multiple Parliaments. Sadie Smith of Sadie’s Tavern did a trial run around Westminster. Here is the summary; click through for the full report. (On a sidenote, we are still thinking about names for reports. Suggestions are welcome in the comments).

Westminster Watch 25/2 - 3/3

The Main Feature

It’s been a week of contrasts and thinly veiled class warfare here at Westminster. Revelations in last week’s Sundays that Commons Speaker Michael Martin had snaffled a cool £17,000 of expenses last year to pay a mortgage on a house he already owns has divided opinion amongst MPs, the press, and bloggers alike. In the red corner the Martin cheerleaders are muttering how this is all an eeeevil campaign perpetrated by a bunch of Eton hoorays in the media and in Parliament who want to remind the proletariat of their place; in the blue corner his detractors are trumpeting that this is an outrageous misuse of public funds for which he should resign (even if he weren’t a bit crap). Meanwhile, at least one potential contender for the Speaker post - should Martin, entirely by his own choice you understand, fall on his sword - has been practising his Elder Statesman routine in front of anyone who can’t manage to run away fast enough.

News from Elsewhere

• The bowel-clenching tedium of the debate on the Lisbon Treaty was unexpectedly enlivened by some we-shall-not-be-moved action from the Liberal Democrats.
• A protest on the roof of the Commons led to the arrest of a Parliamentary bag-carrier.
• And the Gord got down wiv da kidz at the Labour Party’s Spring Conference in Birmingham.

Wicked, innit?

Continue Reading »

Introduction

This is the first of two posts posts showing how I try and apply headings on the Wardman Wire. The first post is “pre-edited”. The second is “post-edited”. I have used the trial run of Sadie Smith’s Westminster Watch column for this demonstration.

There are only a few guidelines I give to people writing for the blog, and I try to keep editing as light as possible:

• Nothing actionable (i.e., don’t get me sued).
• Write as if for an intelligent tabloid publication or at the level of the Economist.
• Unless there is a good reason not to do so, use regular Subheads such that they convey the sense and flow of your argument or article. A good test is to delete the text, and see if the headings and subheadnings still give the gist of the article.

The Report Before Editing

This first post includes the “raw” report, before editing.

Westminster Watch 25/2 - 3/3

Summary

It’s been a week of contrasts and thinly veiled class warfare here at Westminster. Revelations in last week’s Sundays that Commons Speaker Michael Martin had snaffled a cool £17,000 of expenses last year to pay a mortgage on a house he already owns has divided opinion amongst MPs, the press, and bloggers alike. In the red corner the Martin cheerleaders are muttering how this is all an eeeevil campaign perpetrated by a bunch of Eton hoorays in the media and in Parliament who want to remind the proletariat of their place; in the blue corner his detractors are trumpeting that this is an outrageous misuse of public funds for which he should resign (even if he weren’t a bit crap). Meanwhile, at least one potential contender for the Speaker post - should Martin, entirely by his own choice you understand, fall on his sword - has been practising his Elder Statesman routine in front of anyone who can’t manage to run away fast enough. In other news: the bowel-clenching tedium of the debate on the Lisbon Treaty was unexpectedly enlivened by some we-shall-not-be-moved action from the Liberal Democrats, a protest on the roof of the Commons led to the arrest of a Parliamentary bag-carrier, and the Gord got down wiv da kidz at the Labour Party’s Spring Conference in Birmingham. Wicked, innit?

Continue Reading »