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Where the typical Lib Dem blog reader's head is at

12 - 09 - 2007
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James Graham (London, Quaequam): I'm not sure that simply exhorting individual Lib-Dems to write for OurKingdom is going to get us anywhere, which is what Anthony seemed to be calling for in his post on Ming. Perhaps he should consider a short - baiting - piece on Lib Dem Voice. The response I got from my articles last week on the policy paper was almost nil. There's a more fundamental problem which even I struggle to get my head around.

Look, for example, at the weekly Top of the Blogs for an indication of where the typical Lib Dem blog reader's head is at: it's all by-elections, rival bashing and solipsism. Stephen Tall - who compiles the weekly charts - expresses similar concerns, although it should be pointed out that to an extent that's true of blogging across the political spectrum.

The reason the Tory blogland is slightly more policy based and lively as OK has been debating is partly down to the fact that they have much more media to feed off and partly because Conservative Central Office is much more geared up to using things like ConHome to get their message across. To an extent, the Lib Dems will always be disadvantaged in this respect because they simply don't get equal treatment in the media; but I do despair of a media strategy that appears to amount to little more than putting out the occasional press release. Every major policy paper launched over the summer (the party is debating five this autumn) has sunk without trace and I struggle to see what the party has done pro-actively to maximise their impact aside from the occasional article in a national newspaper. Compare that with David Cameron's three speeches on crime in the space of a single week last month.

Bottom line? If the Lib Dems had launched that policy paper last week by giving half a dozen top Lib Dem bloggers a preview, you can bet that it would have been talked about a lot more.

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Joe Otten (not verified) said:

Wed, 2007-09-12 17:55

I think Top of the Blogs is as tabloid as it is because it is based on clicks driven by saucy headlines.

I would rather see something based on a share-to-vote-for mechanism. These are my votes:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/09189738041828541459/state/com.google/broadcast

Stephen Tall (not verified) said:

Wed, 2007-09-12 15:39

I agree with this, James, and have contacted the Lib Dems' director of policy and communications, Jon Oates, to see what Lib Dem Voice can do to try and help ensure the partys message at least gets an airing (while being careful to maintain the site's independence).

I tend to get most of my info on the party's latest announcements via Google news alerts - and our shadow cabinet MPs, with a couple of honourable exceptions, have not exactly been forthcoming.

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