Happy New Year.
Sorry everything still looks bare. (Not sure I like those Google and Amazon ads, either. They appeared out of the blue over the holiday.) I haven't had a chance to cross-post from Mr S's site just yet. It was fun sitting in for him, even though life became a little unpredictable at times.
Posts will probably be fairly light in the next day or two. I'm going to be giving some thought to what I want to do with this site in 2007. Much as I enjoy blogging, I'm also a freelance journalist, making my living from week to week and never quite knowing what is going to turn up. I really need to strike a better balance between the two activities, especially as the blog brings in next to no money. It's probably a pipe-dream, but I'd love to find the kind of embedded home that Andrew has at Time. (I envy him. You should see the number of lotteries he won over the Christmas holidays. I lost track of the number of congratulatory e-mails that came cascading in. Amazing. He could easily retire tomorrow if he wanted to...)
This isn't some sudden, post-Christmas crisis; I've been thinking about it for a couple of months. 2006 was also an exceptionally draining year on the domestic front. But, who knows, I may be back to business as usual by the end of the week.
Happy New Year !
Glad to see you back at your own blog.
I ventured over to Sullivan's place a few times to read you when I needed my Clive fix.
Posted by: Tara | Monday, January 01, 2007 at 08:42 PM
Clive
Either way, whatever you decide, please do keep an online presence. Even though you don't get paid for this, I can't help but think that in the modern day you need an online profile of some sort in the journalism and editorial writing game, and this will become even more, not less, important in the future.
So it's important for you to have an online voice and presence of some sort, to be part of the general conversation and maintain a profile amongst readers, as well as editors and other journalists. So even if you just post once a week, it will be good, I think.
Posted by: Jay | Monday, January 01, 2007 at 10:11 PM
Thanks. No, I wasn't planning to give up all together. (I'm not sure I could, even if I wanted to.) It's just a question of scaling down the time I devote to the site.
Posted by: Clive D | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 10:10 AM
...So it's important for you to have an online voice and presence of some sort, to be part of the general conversation and maintain a profile amongst readers...
Very much so. Particularly as you were one of the main protagonists. It would look quite poor were you to go over to the MSM lock, stock and barrel. Check what is happening with Blogpower - this was today's big blogger three years ago.
Posted by: james higham | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 09:16 PM
Its worth remembering what a 'blog' orginally weas meant to be - an online log of travels through the internet. Alternatively, there is the blog as essentially a repository for online 'op-eds' that are written for free. Most political bloggers I read are a mixture of the two (though there are some whom place an emphasis on fisking, gossip mongering, or investigative journalism too).
What's fascinating about both your blog and Andrew's is watching the op-eds germinate and grow from tidbits and half-formed musings, into columns for The Times.
Posted by: Robert | Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 04:09 PM