Blurred Keys

UPDATE BELOW: A new Irish blog has launched, it appears to be in the style of the infamous NYC-based Irish blog Blogorrah.

The Chancer, with an address thechancer.ie, started publishing late last weeks.

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An Irish beauty blog says it has up to 6,000 unique visitors, and over 150,000 hits a day, just one year after starting.

Beaut.ie run by sisters Kirstie and Aphrodite, has close to 2,000 posts on topics such as facials, lipgloss, waxing, and latest beauty trends.

Just one year old, the winners of best newcomer and best design at last year’s Irish Blog Awards are said to have ‘well over’ 50,000 comments.

(Vie mulley.net)

- Anonymous claims made against Ryan
- Pay outstanding to former employees 
- Blogorrah to return before September
- Gatsby Publishing “still exists. Just”
- Ryan trying to revived dog publication
- Gatsby looking to retrieve $110,000

UPDATE: Janice Ridge a former out-of-office account executive at Gatsby Publishing came forward shortly after
this article was published stating that she is no longer anonymous.

John Ryan, publisher of infamous Irish blog Blogorrah and recently defunct New York Dog and Hollywood Dog magazines, has defended business practice at Gatsby Publishing after a competitor published a report with anonymous allegations said to be from two former employees.

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We’re hoping to get an interactive thing going with the audience. It would be better, we could have a two-way thing… I think that would be great because it would be a community of people having a discussion rather than a monologue”.

- commented outspoken Irish broadcaster Eamon Dunphy when asked by Irish tech site siliconrepublic.com if he would be interested in blogging (vie blogorrah.com).

While not trying to
get too caught up in the controversy over a blogger code of conduct, an open forum
in Dublin tomorrow (Monday) night will look at the question ‘do the same standards
apply to journalists and bloggers?’.

Everybody is welcome,
and the event is reasonably informal, for more information see our previous post
on the forum.

Blurred Keys takes the view that both groupings are more alike
then they would generally like to admit.

A blog is after all only a publishing system, although digital and versatile their content can vary in similar ways to newspapers or magazines…

There’s nothing stopping a local newspaper using blogging software for publishing news, as what is been done at the Buckinghamshire Advertiser in the UK (vie BuzzMachine). In Ireland, that role is somewhat being filled by bloggers like the Limerick Blogger, but no local newspapers are at it yet.

Meanwhile, the Economist use their ‘the Inbox‘ blog to publish readers’ letters “soon after receipt”.

In off-line conversation somebody questioned the importance we attached to the recent news that the Irish Times are the first national Irish newspaper to start blogging.

There are two reasons to highlight the story; the Irish media are miles behind the media in the UK and other countries when it comes to blogging (partly understandable due to Ireland’s low broadband penetration) and the Irish Times look to be serious about their new project with journalists Jim Carroll, Conor Pope, Shane Hegarty and more to be announced blogging on Ireland.com.

In what started with a mulley.net post against a blogger code of conduct, the Guardian’s Organ Grinder blog has misrepresented what a prominent Irish blogger has said.

While writing about ‘content labels’ for blogs, Organ Grinder stated, “A few bloggers have already rather predictably rejected the idea already before it has even begun. Sunday Tribune columnist Damien Mulley said, "fuck off" to content labels for blogs”.

Damien Mulley, however, did not say “fuck off” to content labels, he clearly said “Blogger code of conduct? Two words - Fuck off”, and that was just the headline.

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The Irish Times has ventured into blogging for the first time at Ireland.com. The newspaper’s first blog, ‘On the Record’, is hosted by music journalist Jim Carroll.

Along with breaking news and content from the Ticket supplement, the music blog is free-to-view in contrast to much of the site which is subscription based.

While Irish journalists – including Irish Times staff – have been blogging for some time, this is first public move by a national newspaper into blogging.

The Irish Times and journalist Brian Boyd have replied to an Irish blogger’s claim of plagiarism.

Similarities between an obituary of Jean Baudrillard published in the Irish Times to another published days earlier in the New York Times were investigated by management at the Dublin-based paper of record after the likeness of the two articles was discovered by Irish blogger Kevin Breathnach.

“A charge of plagiarism is very serious, but we are satisfied that Brian Boyd’s article is not a re-write of the New York Times story” an Irish Times spokesperson told Blurred Keys. “It covers some similar territory, and makes some similar observations, as do other features and obits about Baudrillard, but the accusation is unsubstantiated and unfair. We understand Brian Boyd plans to respond to the original post.”

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‘Twenty Major’, an infamous Irish blogger, has received a two-book deal with publisher Hodder Headline.

Major who recently won ‘Best Blog’ and ‘Most Humorous Post’ at the Irish Blog Awards is best known for not holding back on strong views and regular use of the swear word ‘cunt’.

The story was broke by Irish Times journalist Sinéad Gleeson on her blog at sineadgleeson.com. (With thanks to mulley.net for the tip)

Clarification: A photograph of Twenty Major accepting an award at the Irish Blog Awards was added to this post shortly after the story was first published. This image has been removed on a request of the blogger in question. It was judged that the blogger’s right to privacy is greater then any current journalist reasons for keeping the photograph online.

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