David on February 4th, 2010

Corrections
My previous post – Bloggers vs Journalists: Why bloggers are second class citizens – seems to have stirred up quite a debate.
There are a few things that have been brought to my attention since that I thought I should add. First of all (and somewhat going against my argument), it seems as though the budget [...]

Continue reading about Postscript to bloggers vs journalists debate

Or The Curse of the Woman Who Didn’t Know When To Shut Up.
 
Difference between bloggers and journalists
A few weeks ago, the ever-excellent Matthew Teller hosted a debate on his blog about the difference between bloggers and journalists.
It’s something of a hoary old debate, but some excellent points were raised. Key amongst these are that journalists [...]

Continue reading about Bloggers vs Journalists: Why bloggers are second class citizens

David on November 17th, 2009

Amazon innovation
It’s an innovation that has, largely, slipped under the radar. But it could have a big impact on how the travel industry deals with social media. I’ve a feeling that Amazon may have just changed the game.
 
Amazon affiliate program
For those who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, forgive me: you might not have [...]

Continue reading about Will Amazon change how social media works in travel?

David on November 17th, 2009

The internet: killing travel journalism?
A while back, I weighed in with my thoughts on how the internet is supposedly killing travel journalism. At the bottom, I made a small point which I didn’t think too much of at the time, but I am increasingly coming to think may be important.
 
Travel companies as publishers
Here it is [...]

Continue reading about The emerging new market place for travel journalists

David on October 14th, 2009

Blogosphere debate
Jeremy Head has written a characteristically interesting post on whether travel content that has been paid for by a company can ever be objective.
As part of the debate, he references Matthew Teller’s proposal about PR agencies and tourist boards paying travel writers for articles rather than the publications they are published in.
 
How travel writers [...]

Continue reading about Who will pay for travel writing? A potential compromise

David on October 2nd, 2009

Is there money in travel writing?
Jeremy Head has written a fascinating piece on the new travel technology news service, Tnooz.com. He goes through the fears that many travel writers are facing about the internet taking over from print. To put it in a nutshell, where will travel writers get their money from in the future?
 
Comments [...]

Continue reading about Is the internet really killing travel journalism?

David on September 24th, 2009

Tourist information office advice
If you go into a tourist information office, you are generally looking for advice on what to do, where to go etc. It would be a bad tourist information office that just told you to look at all the leaflets and brochures that are scattered around the room.
 
Tourism authority websites
And yet this [...]

Continue reading about Why tourist board websites alienate travellers

Reluctance to join Twitter
I was extremely reluctant to join Twitter. As with many who have an antipathy towards it, I thought it was a place for self-obsessed morons to blather about what they had for breakfast. I didn’t know what it was for – and in a way I still don’t, but I have decided [...]

Continue reading about Twitter and the travel industry: Bringing the outsiders together

David on August 19th, 2009

My little list of Top 15 Travel Twitterers seems to have got itself a fair bit of attention. Interestingly, a lot of comments have centred around my reasons for unfollowing someone.
To summarise, if I find a Twitterer dull, irrelevant or overly irritating, then I see no reason to keep following them. Nothing personal – it’s [...]

Continue reading about How to use Twitter effectively: Travel PR companies

David on August 17th, 2009

Lists of Twitterers to follow
If you want a list of people to follow on Twitter, then you’ll not struggle to find them. There are hundreds of such lists out there on the web. Alas, most aren’t very helpful.
These Twitterer lists generally fit into one of two categories. Either they’ve got so many names that they’re [...]

Continue reading about Top 15 travel Twitterers