Back in the blogosphere

This is my first post in more than a month. I've been working as an on-site consultant to the Greenspun Media Group in Las Vegas and found that it was very difficult to keep up a blog and work inside a media company as an adviser. The blogosphere is a place for open and robust discussion. But that conflicts with the work of a consultant, which is to offer insight and assistance on a confidential basis. Not only is the work demanding and time-consuming. But it seemed to me that anything I wrote could be read as some type of commentary on the place where I was working or the issues I was working on. I don't think it would have been right to have done that. It could have confused the staff or given the wrong impression to the community or competitors. It made more sense to me to keep everything internal.

It was difficult to find where to draw the line when writing about journalism or media issues when I was working as a media consultant. So I drew it very broadly. I would have felt differently if I had been a member of the company's very talented staff. In that case, as when I was editor of the Rocky Mountain News, I would have used my blog and twitter to interact with the community and try to provide insight into our decisions and actions as a news organization. As I would advise any editor to do today.

I've now wrapped up my on-site work in Las Vegas and look forward to rejoining the online debate.