LexBlog Q & A: Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post Intelligencer

Today’s LexBlog Q & A (formerly Five Questions) features Todd Bishop, a local reporter at the Seattle Post Intelligencer who operates his own successful technology blog focusing on Microsoft, aptly called Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog. In an interview conducted via e-mail, Todd – who I got to know during my time as an intern at the P.I. earlier this year – explains the ever-changing role blogging has played in his life as a journalist.

1. Rob La Gatta: How did the development of your Microsoft blog come about in the first place, and when did this occur? Has it always been so focused, or did you begin with a broader topic (i.e. technology)?

Todd Bishop: I started my blog in September 2003. My primary assignment at the paper is to cover Microsoft, because of its big presence in the Seattle region. So Microsoft has always been the main subject of the blog, although I also end up writing about Google, Apple, IBM, Yahoo, Cisco, Sony, Nintendo and many other tech companies in the process.

A couple months before I started my blog, I had written a story about all the Microsoft employees who were just starting to blog. Blogging was still a novelty at that point for many people, and the story explored all the issues raised by corporate employee blogging. Working on the story also got me interested in the whole concept of blogging, and my editor at the time encouraged me to consider blogging as part of my beat.

Over time, the blog has become the main focus of my work. I still write for the newspaper almost every day, but more often than not, my newspaper stories flow from the reporting and writing that I do first for my blog. The blog is also a big focus for readers. It’s not uncommon for people on the beat to recognize me from the blog, not from my byline in the newspaper. Old-school journalists would debate whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s the reality for me at this point.

2. Rob La Gatta: Do you have a specific routine for blogging? Where do you write best – at home? In the office? Somewhere else?

Todd Bishop:

I have to be pretty mobile as part of my job, traveling to cover tech events and spending time on the Microsoft campus and at other companies. So I carry a laptop, and I’ve gotten good at blocking out the surroundings when I need to write, so it really doesn’t matter where I am.

The “always-on” nature of blogging does require my hours to be a little more flexible. For example, sometimes I’ll wake up earlier in the morning and work on some posts from home, and then take a break and go in to the office a little later.

3. Rob La Gatta: You are in a very unique situation, operating a blog about the biggest software company in the world from the city where they’re based. What would you say has been the biggest perk of maintaining and developing your blog?

Todd Bishop: I don’t know if perk is the word I’d use, but blogging helps a beat reporter like me in few ways.

First, it helps my reporting by keeping me highly tuned in to what’s happening, because I’m always digging for good blog material. It’s not that I wouldn’t be tuned in otherwise, but having a blog requires a reporter to pay attention on a much more granular level.

For example, sometimes I’ll see an SEC document or court filing that might not seem to rise to the level of a full-blown newspaper story at first. But I’ll start asking questions about it anyway, thinking that it might make a good blog post, and based on the answers that I get, it turns out that it’s actually a really interesting story – something significant that also deserves to be in the newspaper. In those cases, I’ll do the post and then write something on the same general topic for the paper.

The blog has also helped me become more widely known on the beat, which is a good thing.

There are downsides. For example, the time I spend on the blog each day means that I don’t have much time to spend on long-term stories for the newspaper, the kinds of projects that other reporters work on in their spare time. So it’s a trade-off.

4. Rob La Gatta: It appears that more and more reporters around the country are beginning to enter the blogosphere, gradually starting to write for their company blogs while continuing to do “traditional” stories for the print publication. If you could offer one bit of writing advice to a journalist moving from the print medium to a blog, what would it be?

Todd Bishop:

The biggest problem is time management. In reality, blogging and writing for the newspaper are two full-time jobs, but in most cases reporters are asked to do both.

My biggest piece of advice is to make your reporting count twice – once for the blog and once for the newspaper. To be clear, I’m not saying that reporters should just put the exact same content on the blog and in the newspaper. But one trick is to treat the blog as a place for your raw material – the basic information that you gather in the course of working your beat and reporting. And then that raw material is what you refine into your stories for the traditional print publication.

For example, when news breaks, I like to let the story unfold on my blog. I post quotes, interview excerpts, key facts and links to related material as the day progresses. So readers can follow along. Then, when it comes time to write my story for the newspaper, later in the day, it’s all there for me to work with. I’ve been simultaneously blogging and preparing myself to write the newspaper story.

A good example of this is the posts I did following the rejection of Microsoft’s antitrust appeal in Europe:

• “Microsoft loses EU ruling: excerpts, links and video”
• “Microsoft, EU debate ruling’s broader impact”
• “EU Microsoft smackdown: the industry reacts”

5. Rob La Gatta: Your blog entries often feature quotes from people affiliated with the companies you write about. On the whole, are these folks as willing to take the time to speak with you knowing that you’re quoting them in a blog entry rather than a newspaper article?

Todd Bishop: This has evolved over time. When I first started the blog, people weren’t always willing to spend the time with me if it was “just” for a blog post. Frankly, back then, I didn’t feel comfortable taking a lot of someone’s time if it was just for a blog post.

But I’ve been doing this for more than four years now, and the audience for my blog has grown to the point where sometimes people will express disappointment if I only put something in the newspaper, and not on the blog – which is actually pretty rare, anyway. So it has totally changed, in a good way.

Many thanks to Todd for his thoughtful answers. Readers, keep checking back next week, when the LexBlog Q & A returns with some more exciting guests.