I’ve never thought of this blog as having a name. It’s just my blog.
When I added “media blog” to the tagline, that was meant as a description and a little SEO experience (to see if I could get any kind of audience from people looking for “media blogs” — that hasn’t really worked out). But lots of people refer to this blog as the “media blog,” as if that’s its title.
That’s not the title.
If there is any title, it’s howardowens.com.
So I’ve changed to the the tagline.
The tagline also reflects the evolution of this blog. When I started in 2002, my blog was intended just to be a personal journal. I’ve written a lot about things that interest me.
In 2005 or so, I decided I needed to focus on something, so I chose “media,” with the idea that I would write about newspapers, TV, radio, music — all things media that interested me.
But because what I know best is online newspapers, and because those seem to be the posts regular readers seem to care the most about, I’ve pretty much become narrowly focused on that topic.
My old “about” page, which was about all my eclectic interests, to reflect a time when this blog was mostly about me and my interests, has been seeming really stale as this blog as evolved into more of a professional blog, and less about what songs I’m listening to or which books I’m reading (unless they’re work related). So I’ve updated the about page to reflect my professional biography.
This is also smart usability, I think — I find lots of people click on the about link rather than the LinkedIn link to find out who I am. I imagine them scratching their head — who is this idiot with all of these divergent interests who is telling us how to run online newspapers when he seems to have no professional qualifications at all> Maybe now, the bio will explain a little better that I’m not just “some blogger” ranting about the clueless MSM.
So I read your excellent blog, regularly, through my feedreader. So I rarely see the site itself. But when you mentioned the tagline, I had to click through.
And I see that you need a copy editor…
:-)
There’s never been any doubt I need a copy editor. When I was a copy editor, I needed a copy editor.
Once, years ago, I tried to get my wife to be my blog copy editor. She’s a great copy editor. But that soon fell off …
I was just talking to a friend today about how I love to trace accomplished journalists career trajectories to see what unexpected things I find. I’m never amazed by where people start and how they get where they end up, and how unpredictable it all is. It makes me wonder not just what my next move will be, but where I’ll be standing in a decade or two.
Your about page makes mine looked boring by comparison. But I guess once I have some more experience, I’ll have some interesting twists and turns to flesh it out beyond why I got involved in journalism in the first place.