Better late than never, I suppose, the Telegraph team has responded to last week’s Guardian story suggesting they were planning to hold stories back from their website, in the interests of boosting sales of the print edition. At the time, I was a bit dubious… and, apparently, rightly so.
We now have a response from the Telegraph’s Shane Richmond, on the blog formerly known as Upload, but now apparently just called ‘Technology Blog’ (or Blogs). He lists a number of examples where print and online work together, and where a piece might go to the web before it goes to newsprint. ‘There are no plans to delay publication of newspaper articles,’ he says. And I’m prepared to take him at his word.
But even if you were busy writing an important presentation, Shane, I think it was a mistake to wait so long to publish your rebuttal. This should have been a perfect case study for what a blog could do for your site, and your organisation. By waiting so long after the initial story – during which time we’ve had both a Guardian Friday podcast and a Monday media supplement – no matter how well you bolt that stable door, the horse is long gone.