Step away from the keyboard

Mike and I had a rather pointed discussion the other day about a New York Times piece on Silicon Valley PR that raised hackles throughout the industry.

I felt that we needed to add our voice to the conversation, as the blogs and feeds were afire over it. Mike countered that there were too many posts on the subject already and, lapsing into his curmudgeonly city-editor persona, asked bluntly: What would we write that others haven't said first?

I continued my argument but, after relentless interrogation, basically admitted that my main motivation to join the fray was for traffic.

As Guhmshoo, I had successfully piggybacked on other controversies (such as Amazon's recent "glitch") that drove a fair amount of clicks my way. But in those cases, I offered something unique: a cartoon. This time it would just be another echo in the bat cave.

The web is noisy enough as it is, and if you want to be a responsible content creator--shouldn't we all?--you must learn how and when to exercise restraint. Or, as we like to call it, "Newsvetting." To wit, here are a few practices we recommend:

• Add new factual information rather than just an opinion or a rehashing of existing arguments. Examples: new data, a fresh angle, corrections, clarifications, and, the most elusive contribution of all, possible solutions.
• Write as quickly as possible to avoid the rapid decay of Internet time. Even a strong post loses value with every Tweet that goes by and risks being trumped by another blogger while you waste time thinking Great Thoughts.
• Get yourself an editor (professional or otherwise) to play devil's advocate as you state your case for writing about a particular topic. If you have a hard time justifying your position, it's probably time to step away from the keyboard.
• If you feel that you are doing your readership a huge disservice by not reporting on this topic (not likely), consider sharing the top articles on your distribution channels (e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed).

Many of you may find these guidelines too restrictive. But if your blog is part of your profession, you need to start thinking of it as more than a self-indulgent hobby. Rather, you should run it like a serious news property or not at all. Even if you do manage to snag a few page views with a clever headline, those readers aren't likely to return once they realize that you're not adding anything of substance to the issue at hand.

Remember that relevance, credibility, and timeliness are three basic criteria for every post. Be honest and ask yourself if your ideas meet these tests on every post--before you start to write.