Online Journalism Blog at 20: Paul Bradshaw's milestone in digital journalism
Paul Bradshaw's Online Journalism Blog celebrates 20 years. The Asterisk speaks with the expert on its evolution, the benefits of blogging, and the significance of AI in the future of journalism.
A crooked smile spreads across his face, his jaw dropping slightly as he stands in the dimly lit corridors of Millennium Point. His glasses can't hide his surprise; he’s forgotten about it—again.
That was Professor Paul Bradshaw’s initial reaction back in April when I asked him if he was aware that the Online Journalism Blog would celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.
Could someone really forget about something they’ve essentially fed and nurtured—like the age of a university student? I wondered. As a kid, my dad occasionally forgot to pick me up from football practise, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
As for Paul, I was determined to find out.
Frustration and a busy schedule
“Hope to see you in a two-piece suit today,” I messaged him on Slack on the morning of the interview—a channel that connects him with nearly everyone he’s taught.
“Too late! Still, I decided to wear my favourite shirt, so you’re in luck!” he replies with a smiley face.
While Paul dabbles in data, I play with probabilities, and I knew exactly which shirt he was talking about. I’d seen him wear it during several of our lectures and on important occasions. The uncertainty was minimal.
Paul arrives at his office in Millennium Point, huffing and out of breath, wearing a muted dark green shirt after delivering a lecture to his new Data Journalism batch.
“I knew you were going to wear that,” I laugh, pointing at his shirt.
“I really like it,” he replies, his voice raspy from three hours of speaking. “I wanted to get another one, but I don’t think they make them anymore,” he adds as we sit down in the tutorial room opposite his office.
He then reaches for a lozenge to soothe his hoarse throat.
“I’m really annoyed that I didn’t get around to doing a blog post,” Paul confesses, curling his fingers in frustration. The compactness of the room, coupled with the dull lighting, creates an interrogation room-like setting as Paul’s silver MacBook sits open on the table, displaying the Online Journalism Blog’s webpage.
“Yeah, mainly I’m just kicking myself for not writing a blog post for the 15-year mark, which I meant to do. I missed that and failed to plan for this,” he adds—quite uncharacteristic of Paul. Students in the course will attest to his insistence on maintaining a diary. He does keep one, but he’s a busy man.
Paul splits his week between Birmingham City University (BCU), where he leads the MA Data Journalism course, and his role as a data journalist at the BBC, located at The Mailbox in the city centre. When he returns home, he continues to work on the course and dedicates time to writing chapters for his books.
To give you a glimpse of his busy schedule, the interview had to be split into two parts. Even with his limited time, Paul is always generous, giving a few extra minutes—whether it’s for a tutorial, an interview, or a chat about the pedagogies of journalism.
The only person I could imagine with a busier week was Donald Trump, campaigning across the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—all in a single day ahead of the US Presidential election.
While Trump campaigned to win the battleground states, Paul not only managed his routine work and a hack day but also battled an illness. The one thing they had in common this week—probably the only thing—was that both sat for interviews.
“There are so many things I want to do but don’t have the time for,” he reflects, speaking about his busy schedule and not getting around to an anniversary post. “That’s a feeling I’m used to, and it’s just another thing I’ve got to accept. I can’t do everything I want to do.”
For someone who reads, writes, and researches voraciously, a hundred drafts sitting among his other work and university files on Paul’s Mac would be a conservative estimate—or a high probability.
“There are so many blog posts that I want to write or have started to write, and I need to finish them, so I don’t have as much time for blogging as I used to.”
“I did have over 100 at one point,” he reveals, squinting as if trying to jog his memory. “I can't remember if I deleted some of them.” I imagine the graveyard of drafts, a sea of white tombstones titled ‘Untitled, Untitled 1, Untitled 1(1)...’
“I’ve written five blog posts, of which I’ve published two, and I have three scheduled to go out this month (September) and next month.”
“That’s progress,” he laughs.
Origins
Paul’s scheduled posts ensure that the blog is regularly updated and vibrant. However, uncertainty lingers over its date of birth.
A backdated post for October 29, 1999, gives the impression that the blog has been live for 25 years. Paul clarifies that he wrote two posts on that very day, but in 2004.
“The first one is the first one,” he smiles, though the uncertainty still remains.
“It’s just a change… the date on it,” he adds. “So that one, October 1999, shows the date as October 29, 1999, but it’s actually October 29, 2004.” Paul points to the screen, which displays a timeline of his posts.
He had simply changed the date as a joke.
“Oh, I must have done another post that day as well! So both those posts were written on the same day,” he remembers.
“But Getting My Arse in Gear is the first part, and you’ve got to remember this wasn’t called the Online Journalism Blog at that point,” he adds.
In its infancy, the blog wasn’t focused on journalism; instead, Paul shared his thoughts on books, tools, and other topics that intrigued him. After a few months, it became clear to him that much of what he was writing about was related to online journalism.
“I had to make a conscious decision,” he says on setting a definite path in the digital journalism landscape. “What aspect of online journalism should I focus my efforts on?” he asked himself.
With the field evolving and expanding, Paul has always adapted to trends.
“In 2004, online journalism was writing for the web and blogging. Ten years later, you've got writing for social media, mobile journalism, data journalism, etcetera, etcetera.”
“I can't remember what point it was, but I remember thinking I can't cover all of this. What aspect is the most important? That was when I decided on data journalism, which I don't think was called data journalism at that point, so it must have been before 2010.”
Paul believed that data journalism had the most potential to fulfil the important duties of journalism, such as holding power to account and conducting investigations.
“That became 60-70% of my focus,” he says. “I would still write about all the other stuff, but that was not my primary focus. I was spending most of my time on data journalism, and then something like Snapchat would come along. So I’d play around with Snapchat and read about that. Obviously, at the moment, I’m doing a lot of stuff around AI.”
Paul also ran three other blogs related to the modules he taught—Television and Interactive Content, Web and New Media, and Interactive PR—which have now been discontinued.
Following a model: Link blogging
On October 29, 2004, Paul came across British comedy screenwriter James Henry’s blog, highlighted on that day’s Guardian news blog, which set the wheels in motion for his own blog.
“I do remember reading an article about blogs,” he says. “It was probably a list of great blogs to follow. There was something about that particular blog and why or how they’d done it. It was just collecting things, but it’s link blogging, basically.
“I thought, yeah, I can do that. Maybe I’ll follow that model. A lot of my early posts are just links—stuff that would now go on Twitter—but at the time there wasn't any social media, really.”
Conflict: Character vs. Self
The blog, a mix of different interests—like the earthly composition of clay—began to seriously take shape when Paul was teaching the Online Journalism module. However, he faced an internal conflict that made him reconsider how he wanted that clay to take form.
“I'd known about blogging for ages, and the weird thing to me is that in 2004, it felt like I’d be following the crowd by doing a blog, so I hadn't really done it for that reason.
“What I realised later was that I wasn't following the crowd as much as I thought; actually, that crowd was very, very small, and in the bigger picture—especially in online journalism—almost no one was blogging about that. So in that sense, I was one of the first people blogging in that field.
“I was an early adopter, whereas I thought I was late. I kind of resisted doing it because it felt like just doing it for the sake of it. But when I was teaching this module in online journalism, I thought, well, I’m going to be teaching them about blogging, so I should start doing this and experiment as a way of learning about this medium.”
Why the name?
Key words play a critical role in placing content higher in search engines. At 29, Paul already understood the importance of search engine optimisation, which influenced the name of his blog: Online Journalism Blog.
However, it had another name before being rechristened for a target audience: More Blogs About Buildings and Food, a cheeky reference to the American rock band Talking Heads’ album More Songs About Buildings and Food.
“Once I focused on online journalism, I decided that at some point I was going to have a name optimised for search, and obviously, the more literal, the better,” he explains.
“Onlinejournalism.blogspot.com was already taken on Blogger, so I went with Online Journalism Blog. That’s a way of just having online journalism in the URL,” he reveals.
Paul’s thought process behind naming the blog sounded familiar. A few seconds later, it hit me that he had covered it in class: how a headline that uses a colon can be optimised if the subject is placed at the beginning. Genius.
Growing in influence
Paul’s blog has garnered nearly 3,000 subscribers and is packed with incredible research. He never envisioned the kind of influence it would have today.
“No, absolutely not,” Paul says when asked whether he anticipated this impact.
“At various points, I’ve found it incredible how much of an impact that blog has had on my life because it started out as an experiment. It was primarily for me, and then later it became a resource for students.”
Paul then discovered other bloggers who were early adopters, such as Martin Stabe, now Data Editor at the Financial Times, and Mindy McCabe, a recently retired lecturer from the United States.
“I would link to their blogs or comment on them, and that connected me with a wider community, which then grew,” he explains. “It tapped me into these conversations and connected them to what I was doing. So we were talking amongst ourselves, really, and I guess that probably encouraged me to write more.
“And as I experimented more, more and more people started to read the blog.”
Paul eventually reached a point where he needed to shift his audience to cater to students within the university as well.
“So I started to do interviews and more in-depth analyses and stuff like that. That was definitely not part of the plan. There was probably a kind of golden age during which blogs were at their peak, and it was a genuine community with a genuine network. I genuinely had the time to do that as well, and then it shifted into the social media age.”
Benefits of blogging
Blogging offers numerous inward and outward benefits. It helped Paul develop a regular writing habit.
“Blogging was very effective for me,” he says. “I was able to write quickly, unselfconsciously, and naturally.
“It’s a good way of getting into a reading habit because you’re always looking for things to include in your blogs. You’re constantly making contacts and stuff like that. It gives you an excuse to interview people. So there are a lot of inward benefits.”
I nodded in agreement, recalling how I had taken Paul’s advice midway through the course. It helped me establish contacts with Premier League clubs, Formula One teams, and environmental organisations.
“That subsequently helps upcoming writers with outward benefits if you want to build a reputation,” Paul adds.
Twenty years later, the blogging landscape has changed, according to Paul.
“I’m doing stuff now that you wouldn’t blog about; you do it on social media. Blogging was much more like social media back then.”
“People would comment on your blogs, and there would be more of a conversation,” he explains. “That doesn’t really happen on blogs anymore, and I think newsletters have taken the place of blogs.
“I wouldn’t necessarily advise someone to start a blog now. I would say start a newsletter.”
Kill your babies: Becoming less self-conscious
Another suggestion that Paul shared during lectures was to write more often—not simply because you will improve over time, but also because there’s an important trait you can acquire that takes your writing up a notch.
“The more often you write, the better you get, but also, the quicker and less self-conscious you become. That’s a real skill to acquire as a writer,” he emphasises, drawing a line on the table with his finger to underline the importance of the skill. “You need to learn to kill your babies.”
No, Paul wasn’t suggesting or admitting to murder in the interrogation room; rather, he was talking about developing a certain coldness toward your own work. This quote is a variation of Stephen King’s advice (which itself is based on British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s advice) and is mentioned in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, adding credence to Paul’s perspective.
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings,” - Stephen King
“It sums it up well,” Paul smiles. I smiled back, recalling how he had quoted King throughout semesters one and two, and I realised I had never incorporated it into my work. I then laughed, thinking that I wasn’t going to do it for this story either.
“Generally, you need to be detached enough from your work,” he continues, simplifying King’s advice, and it hits home. “You’ve invested energy in something, and you’ve crafted it, and it can feel precious to you—and that can be a really bad thing,” Paul warns.
“You haven’t got the emotional distance to see it as the audience sees it. An audience looks at the same thing and thinks it’s indulgent, overwritten, etc.”
Paul describes it as a classic “supply and demand” situation.
“If you can just write and write and write… the value of that drops. It’s less precious, so you can cut it more easily, and you can even cut it entirely.”
He suggests that writers should be prepared to take the nuclear option and bin the story if necessary—a move that many emerging writers might find daunting, akin to dropping a baby from a seven-story building.
“There are stories I’ve written—like I said, I’ve got 100 drafts on some of them. Just because I’ve invested effort doesn’t mean I ever need to publish it. Deleting it is one of the hardest things.”
Easier said than done, Paul; easier said than done, my inner voice protests.
“I spent all that time writing, and then there’s going to be nothing as a result of it,” Paul continues.
“But actually, that’s fine,” he reassures. “That’s good. When you reach that point, I think that’s when you think, ‘Yes, I’ve kind of reached inner peace.’ My ego has been left at the door.”
“It probably took 10 or 15 years of writing before I reached that point where I was truly emotionally distant from the things I’d written,” he adds, invoking the sense of discipline reminiscent of an oath that monks take to attain enlightenment in the hills of Asia.
“I’ve got a lot of years to go,” I respond, as we both chuckle at the ruthlessness required to become a great writer.
228/239: Consistency is key
Consistency is key to any successful endeavour, and Paul has certainly put in the work.
Out of a possible 239 months, Paul has uploaded at least one post for 228 of those months.
“Oh really? Oh my God!” he reacts when presented with the stat. “There was a time when I had to give myself a limit of three posts a day because I was writing that much,” he reveals.
“Now, it might be one a month, like you say, and probably, a lot have just one—certainly in the last few years, just one post in one month,” he adds.
Paul’s recent posts are mostly a byproduct of his other writing efforts. “If you look at the last 12 months, there are two parts from the book chapter that I wrote. The five posts that I’ve just written all came off the back of a talk that I did.”
Having engaged in more experimentation, Paul dives deeper into these pieces. “It’s me doing the talk first and then kind of working back from that.”
“It probably comes down to just being in a situation where you are either constantly experimenting or maintaining a curiosity that drives you to discover and document new insights,” he explains.
“Some stuff I’ll write because I want to create a resource that I can point students to. I’ll write because I know I’ve got to do a new edition of the Online Journalism Handbook, and it serves as a first draft of that,” he says, conjuring the image of a graveyard of drafts now filled with kid-sized tombstones.
“So, each time I come to do a new edition of that book, I look at what I’ve blogged over the last few years. I think, ‘Yeah, that can go in my chapter on this.’ You’ll see a lot of the stuff I’ve blogged will end up in my books.”
Online journalism: An important route into the industry
Maintaining the blog opened Paul’s eyes to how the internet, blogging, and social media have at times transformed the industry in various ways.
“I’ve seen a lot of people during the golden era of blogging get into journalism through their blogs, who might have struggled in other times, because there was a way for them to showcase their skills, curiosity, knowledge, and dedication, which impressed people,” he reflects on how blogs have served as stepping stones into the industry.
“My entry into journalism was because of new technology,” he shares. “And then blogging represented another leap. You notice these points where the industry's typical closed nature begins to crack, and we’ve seen that with data journalism as well.
“If an aspiring journalist can make a name for themselves online, they will catch the eye of employers. That’s a crucial route into the industry.
“Ultimately, it’s about dedication, curiosity, and, to some extent, unique skills.”
Opening doors for students and voices overlooked
For students who have no understanding of the industry, starting a blog or a newsletter can be quite challenging. Paul’s blog opens doors for these students, especially for those who are new to the field and are just setting sail.
“It’s more likely that a student is going to get an interview with someone if they say, ‘I’m doing it for the Online Journalism Blog,’” Paul explains. “That’s the first thing. It helps them make contact and also boosts their confidence.
“It’s easier to ask someone for an interview when you have a publication behind you.”
Having an editor who sets the audience and dictates what’s needed from the interview is invaluable for a newcomer.
“I want it to be practical,” he states. “That’s a useful process for a student to experience.
“It’s not just writing for a blog,” Paul clarifies. “You’re writing an interview like you would for any specialist publication.
“The thing I always say about blogging is that there isn’t really any such thing as blogging. You could argue that there are certain generic qualities to blogs, but essentially, blogging is just a platform. You can publish news stories on a blog that would fit in a newspaper.”
Paul also aims to give voices that are often overlooked a platform. Much of the literature on online journalism and data journalism originates from the United States and the United Kingdom.
“I’ve always been very interested in examples of what’s being done elsewhere in the world and in non-English language contexts. I would invite guest writers from South America and Asia. That was part of my criteria: to identify voices that aren’t represented in existing coverage, where there are gaps.”
International recognition
In the 20 years that his blog has been live, Paul’s work has garnered recognition from various quarters.
“There were times when I would be listed as one of the top blogs to follow,” he shares, a boyish excitement shining through—an enthusiasm that often gets lost in the daily grind of adulthood but occasionally resurfaces. “An American organisation like the Poynter Institute once called me one of the most innovative people in blogging, or in journalism in general. That was exhilarating.” A smile spreads across his face as he recalls these moments.
“It’s quite amazing to be recognised in another country,” he adds. “I remember a big Brazilian TV company, Globo, using my model for their approach to multi-platform publishing. I had this News Diamond model, and it was mind-blowing to realise that the ideas and experiments I had developed were being used by major organisations on a completely different continent.”
The News Diamond model explains how a large news story might flow through a converged newsroom, from speed to depth.
Paul would often receive invitations to speak at various events, a thrilling and somewhat surreal experience for him.
“I remember being invited to speak at a conference,” he recounts. “It wasn’t even a journalism conference. It was in Vienna, and I was alongside someone from Amnesty International. I thought, how did I end up here?” He laughs, still incredulous at the journey he’s had.
The evolving landscape: Newsletters and AI
While the roots of online journalism can be traced back to the 90s, when stories were primarily repurposed on static webpages, Paul has not only witnessed this evolution but has actively participated in it—especially as the internet grew more sophisticated.
“It’s just become journalism,” Paul notes. “It started off as an extension of what print newspapers and broadcast companies did, with some startups going online only. Now, it has switched; most print news organisations are no longer print-first—they’re online or mobile-first.”
He adds, “Broadcast… there's still a status thing going on there, even though they know that their audiences are consuming more online than in broadcast, but essentially, all journalism is online in terms of the Venn diagram, you know all of it's online and some of it also is on print or in broadcast. Everyone is an online journalist.”
“So that’s been the big change,” he summarises.
Paul also remarks on the impact of social media: “Social media represents another significant shift, moving journalism from online platforms to social. There was a period when everyone was a social media journalist.
“That's ramping back now,” he adds. “We're coming back from that because of the lack of traffic from social. And now you've got newsletters”
He describes newsletters as a fascinating development that fosters a more direct relationship with audiences, presenting promising solutions to some of the challenges faced by online journalism, particularly regarding business models.
Currently, much of Paul’s work focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI). He recently spoke at the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer School about using generative AI for story ideas. His blog features an article with tips for writing prompts and the slideshow from his talk.
“Looking ahead, AI is likely to dominate everything,” he predicts. “The only analogy I can draw is with the first 10 to 20 years of the web, compressed into just 1 to 5 years, and that will likely be reflected in my blog.
“I’m particularly interested in how AI introduces new challenges and opportunities for teaching journalism, so that’s going to be a significant theme in the coming years.”
So, how will Paul celebrate the 20-year milestone today?
“I’ll celebrate by watching Bolton beat Stevenage?” he responds, half-joking. Even on a day of jubilation, the unpredictability of football can be a letdown.
As for the next milestone—25 years—Paul chuckles and says he’ll probably handle it just like every other anniversary: “Forgetting about it until it’s too late!”
Babies kill count for this story (Paragraphs dropped) = 3.