Thursday 4 December 2014

Farewell, Telegraph Blogs – and thanks for all the stimulation: the new version is simply too dreary to bother reading

I started reading the Telegraph’s blog section about four or five years ago – come to think of it, roughly the same time I started up my own sparkling blog. The newspaper’s site helped me understand what blogs were supposed to look like – it gave me hints about length, style and tone (all of which I was desperately in need of, and probably still am). For about three years Telegraph blogs was my first port of call whenever I sat down at my computer. After a few months of discovering it, I realised that the stuff that was appearing on the blog was a damned sight more interesting than what the newspaper itself was dishing up (apart, of course, from Michael Deacon’s sketches and the Matt cartoon).

Where else could one get regular doses of James Delingpole, Daniel Hannan, Norman Tebbit, Gerald Warner, Douglas Carswell, Damian Thompson, Ed West, Toby Young (yes, I know – he divides opinion), Dan Hodges, Tim Stanley, Peter Mullen and Janet Daley? There was quite a lot of dreary rubbish in the mix – e.g. vapid lefty fembot Mary Riddell, ancient environmentalist crasher Geoffrey Lean and some dreary former Tony Blair advisor whose name I’ve forgotten. But there were never less than three articles worth reading every day.

Then the comments section started being plagued by socialist numbskulls who sounded like ignorant teenagers (then, don’t they all?). Damian Thompson, the blogs editor, got the sack. My two favourite commentators – James Delingpole and Ed West – left to take up better offers. That wonderfully splenetic priest Peter Mullen disappeared (he can now be found in the pages of The Salisbury Review). The site started silting up with stuff from the paper’s fairly dreary political staff. Posts become more irregular, until, starting a few weeks ago, whole days would go by without a single new blog. But, to be honest, by then I was only checking in if someone on my Twitter feed linked to an item worth reading. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out that the newspaper’s online team had shunted most of their blog writers over to the “Comments” section, which resides within the Telegraph’s paywall (thanks for letting readers know – aren’t newspapers supposed to have communications skills?). Fine – I’m a subscriber, so I can access the Comments section. But why should I? It’s dull. Deadly dull.

Five days ago, Daniel Hannan (who, as a politician interested in reaching the widest possible audience, evidently doesn't want to disappear behind any paywall), bade Telegraph online readers farewell in a blog post entitled, “So long and thanks for all the clicks”, explaining that he’d be writing for a new website, CapX (which you can find here):
“Well, chaps, it has been a pleasure. I've enjoyed the interaction and the debate. I've enjoyed being part of what was, while it lasted, without question the premier Right-of-Centre blogs site in the English language.” 
It was indeed. I’m sorry to see it go, but there are many sources of bracing, right-wing insight available these days – including several excellent American sites – so I won’t be wanting for intellectual stimulation. But, when it comes time to renew our Telegraph subscription next year, the paper will probably be wanting us, because I can see absolutely no point in wasting money on a dreary, monotone snoozefest which has decided to stop catering for a broader right-wing readership in favour of once more acting as a cravenly loyal mouthpiece for the Tory Party. That might have been acceptable when the Conservatives were actually worth supporting – but it just won’t wash with Cameron and his clueless crew in charge.

I hope the Telegraph survives long enough to realise that its current strategy is propelling it towards oblivion – it's been part of my daily life for almost 30 years now, and my wife enjoys doing the crossword, so I really don't want it to go to the wall. But, sadly, it’s beginning to feel like a doomed enterprise.

10 comments:

  1. Apparently, the two dodgy geezers who own the remains of the Telegraph have hired an American 'liberal' to finish off the old rag (or make it more 'relevant' which is what he, no doubt, will have told the two old fools).

    I like to think back to the happy years when Michael Wharton''s Peter Simple column, which would be absolutely unprintable today, ran a couple of pages away from Mark Steyn's flashy genius.

    Never thought I'd say it but 'Come back Conrad Black. Before the Telegraph turns into a pale imitation of the Guardian'.

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    1. You may be referring to one Jason Seiken who joined as the Telegraph Media Group's chief content officer in Setember 2013. I've just seen him referred to as a "US digital media guru". Hmm. I wonder if AOL's "digital prophet" David "Shingy" Shing is being lined up by headhunters as a member of the team. Or maybe not. This from the Guardian in October:

      'The Telegraph Media Group (TMG) issued a bland press release today announcing "key new promotions... as part of its accelerated transformation plan."

      But it was easy to read between the lines of the corporate document. Essentially, it means that Jason Seiken, the American imported as the group's chief content officer and editor-in-chief a year ago, is being reassigned to non-editorial duties.

      He will keep his title, but the real job of editing will go to Chris Evans who also becomes director of content "with responsibility for output across all platforms, digital and print."

      According to the press release, he will report to Seiken. But that sounds like no more than a face-saving exercise.'

      Well, good luck to Mr. Evans. I would be happy to come out of retirement to act as a consultant at an absolutely exorbitant per diem rate.

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  2. Happily, I am not in any way connected with the barely twitching corpse that is the Telegraph and what little information I have comes via Interweb tittle-tattle. In among which, Guido seems to have the inside track and suggests 'Seiko' is still very much calling the shots - including the recent plague of rats departing the sinking ship.

    Whoever is responsible, the paper is a ghastly mess and I still believe Black, for all his Napoleonic delusions, ran a better newspaper.

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    1. I miss the Spectator of the 1970s and early '80s, and The Telegraph of the '80s and '90s. For political stuff, it's now mainly websites; American Thinker, The Imaginative Conservative and Taki's Magazine are my current favourites - with Beritbart and The Commentator somewhere in the mix.

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  3. Talking of whole days going by without a new blog, please can you hurry up with your next one. The photo of Mellor will then be relegated to the Older Posts pages and it will be safe to return.

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    1. The offending article has appeared off the home page - you're still stuck with the blister's photo in the Popular Posts section on the right, but that records the most-read blogs for the past 30 days, so it will disappear eventually.

      As I had to write a blog on Sunday to fulfill your wishes, I will be sending you my bill - £800 per diem, double-time for working on Sunday, let's see that makes.... ooh, let's call it £1500. Worth it from your point of view, I'd have thought.

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    2. ….which coincidentally was the exact amount of the bill my lawyer was about to send yours as representing exemplary damages for your tort in displaying material likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to his client.

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  4. Capx.co doesn't look too bad. Apparently it's where some of the Telegraph diaspora have wound up. A bit worthy (not quite the knockabout Delingpole style) but pretty robust.

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    1. I agree - Capx doesn't exactly make the heart leap - solid might be the best word for it. I did think of making the Mail my regular online starting point, but their online offering is a lumpy great mess - and now they've hired Piers Morgan, I intend to avoid it.

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  5. Your mention, Scott, of The Spectator of the 70s and 80s brings back pleasant memories of quality writing from genuine intellectuals like Enoch Powell (though, if memory serves his articles contained a superfluity of logic for most politicians).

    On a different plane, I enjoyed Jeffrey Bernard's column, and was delighted to find that the Peter O'Toole's Leviathan of Louche is available on youtube.

    Doubtless, you have seen this but for any non - cognoscenti :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgRv3a0-1Gg

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