News websites need to provide contact info for their journalists
Earlier today, I wanted to send an email to Steve Krakauer, who blogs for Mediaite. The only problem? Mediaite, like thousands of other news websites, only includes a general contact info email address for the entire site.
Compare this to Gawker, which provides email addresses for all its bloggers, so if there is a blogger that is covering a particular beat or story, I can contact him directly.
It’s annoying and frustrating that something so common sense could allude so many people in the news business. It’s evidence of the dinosaur mentality of news organizations, that it never occurs to them that the crowd can lead to valuable scoops and feedback. Shield off your journalists, keep them away from the masses.
I, on the other hand, have my contact info plastered on my blog, and I can’t tell you how many valuable connections I’ve received because of it.
Another pet peeve of mine too. See also my piece, Why Writers Are Amazingly Stupid .
It’s particularly crazy on news sites.
That said, it’s interesting how national columnists are required to give an email address on their site (when it’s clear that most of them don’t have time to read email).
So true. Not only do news websites do this, but many other websites do as well. It really hinders getting in touch with someone.