General: Out of the Frying Pan...

Some of you might have noticed (or more likely not), that I recently stopped blogging for IT Pro. I kept putting off writing blog posts, and before long I'd gone nearly a month without posting. Eventually this was noticed and they decided it was best if I stood down. Fair enough really.

From my point of view – I've been very busy working on 101 different things, as always, and I've been writing a lot less than normal, full stop (IT Pro hasn't been the only casualty). But I got little, if any public feedback for the posts I made and the money was poor when compared to my usual journalist rates. Frankly – my heart and wallet just weren't in it.

But as they say – as Jebus closes a door, Optimus Prime opens a window. In this case the window was The Telegraph - as I'd been recommended to them as someone to blog for the “Tech Notes” section of the website. Not only does it pay more, but I can imagine I'll get more feedback and recognition for the posts that I make. Certainly I imagine motiviation won't be an issue, and working with a broad sheet newspaper carries with it a certain respect that is appreciated. I was amazed at how many people contacted me just to let me know I was quoted in The Independent last month...

Right now, unless the figures I was given are wrong, Spode's Abode gets more traffic than Tech Notes does. However, the whole site is getting an overhaul and being moved over to the multi-user version of WordPress and significant effort will be put into promoting it. They are aiming high.

Apparantly they have done a lot of work upgrading WordPress extensions to work with the multi-user edition and will be releasing this code into the public domain. That's something I can appreciate. Conversely, IT Pro “took WordPress – arguably the best blogging platform available and managed to break it completely” – to quote one of the Dennis staff that I won't name. I do very much like the IT Pro crew – but Dennis has always suffered from websites that don't match the editorial quality. Aware of some of the internal changes at Dennis – I'm hoping this won't be the case for much longer.

So I'm not sure how much information I can divulge about the changes at the Telegraph, but it's looking exciting. Around six new bloggers are being brought in, only one of which I don't know already – including one Monsieur Le Dan. Dan and I have been working very closely together since the launch of ThinkAboutTech and journalistically, has somewhat been “under my wing”. So we're both quite excited to see him have this opportunity. As long as he steers away from product reviews, he'll be fine

I'm going to be commencing my posts in early May, which is the current scheduled launch date for the new site. I'm also going to be in Cannes from the 19th-26th of April, another reason for the delay. So, watch this space! No, this space. Or maybe this one. Watch the sidebar!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/spode

You can find it here - my first post