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Religion tops Times blogs

Posted by Andrew Grant-Adamson on October 30th, 2006

Ruth Gledhill, religion corespondent of The Times, is the paper’s top blogger. Her Articles of Faith blog is well ahead of any of the others from The Times and The Sunday Times published on the papers’ website, according to the Technorati rankings. Gledhill has 772 links from 160 blogs. At the other end of the scale five have no links from other blogs.

Recently, I questioned the purpose of many newspaper blogs, wondering whether they were the latest must-have accessory for editors. A check through the Technorati rankings, unsatisfactory as they are in some ways, seems to confirm the view that some bring little benefit to their papers.

After Gledhill comes columnist David Aaronovitch with 162 links from 90 blogs. He is closely followed by the group news blog. By the nature of their subjects some blogs will have larger potential audiences than others but it is difficult to see a pattern in The Times blogs.

While Technorati records the total number of links and how many other blogs link, it is the second figure which accounts for the ranking, according to an explanation on their site. The figures are from the previous 180 days. They sometimes seem to change erratically and, in my experience do not always pick up links. The list of Times blogs is below, but first a personal disclosure: Wordblog this afternoon had a ranking of 66,872 with 264 links from 40 blogs. When I revived it in the middle of June it was at the bottom of the pile, somewhere in the 1,600,000s.

Times Blogs

1 Ruth Gledhill — Rank: 15,049 (773 links from 160 blogs)
2 David Aaronovitch — Rank: 28,569 (162 links from 90 blogs)
3 News (Group blog) — Rank: 29,614 (202 links from 87 blogs)
4 Asia Exile (Richard Lloyd Parry) — Rank: 37,040 (178 links from 70 blogs)
5 Comment Central (Daniel Finkelstein) — Rank: 39,301 (284 links from 66 blogs)
5 Charles Bremner — Rank: 40,567 (123 links from 64 blogs)
7 Mousetrap Technology (group blog) — Rank: 45,705 (96 links from 57 blogs)
8 Law (group blog) — Rank: 52,557 (111 links from 50 blogs)
9 So LA (Chris Ayres) — Rank: 66,872 (76 links from 40 blogs)
10 Mick Smith — Rank: 70,641 (172 links from 38 blogs)
11 Enterprise (group blog) — Rank: 72,655 (96 links from 37 blogs)
12 A Don’s Life (Mary Beard) — Rank: 74,752 (75 links from 36 blogs)
=13 Music Log (group blog) — Rank: 79,638 (53 links from 34 blogs)
=13 Peter Stothard — Rank: 79,638 (73 links from 34 blogs)
15 Africa (Jonathan Clayton) — Rank: 102,788 (59 links from 27 blogs)
16 Gerard Baker — Rank: 111,889 (43 links from 25 blogs)
17 Sinofile (Jane Macartney) — Rank: 116,916 (73 links from 24 blogs)
18 Eco Worrier (Anna Shepard) — Rank: 122,662 (40 links from 23 blogs)
19 Gardening (Jane Owen) — Rank: 128,952 (25 links from 22 blogs)
20 Asia’s Century (Leo Lewis) — Rank: 245,389 (35 links from 12 blogs)
=21 Cassandra (Ariel Leve) — Rank: 364,820 (11 links from 8 blogs)
=21 Overseas Property (Peter Conradi) — Rank: 364,820 (17 links from 8 blogs)
=21 People (group blog) — Rank: 364,820 (20 links from 8 blogs)
=21 Gay Global (James Collard) — Rank: 364,820 (9 links from 8 blogs)
25 Pink Mum (Anon) — Rank: 475,893 (6 links from 6 blogs)
26 Beyond Wall Street (James Doran) — Rank: 678,225 (4 links from 4 blogs)
=27 Isn’t She Talking Yet? (India Knight) Rank: 858,703 (5 links from 3 blogs)
=27 Student (Anon) — Rank: 858,703 (3 links from 3 blogs)
=29 East of Eden (Stephen Farrell) — Rank: 1,155,566 (6 links from 2 blogs)
=29 Irwin Stelzer — Rank: 1,155,566 (1 link from 1 blog)
=31 Dollar Signs (Dominic Rushe) — Rank: 1,155,566 (2 links from 2 blogs)
=31 Kabul Times (Tim Albone) — Rank: 1,155,566 (1 link from 1 blog)
33 Northern Times (Russell Jenkins) — Rank: 1,738,471 (No blogs link here)
=34 Popcorn (John Harlow) — Rank: 1,738,471 (No blogs link here)
=34 Travel Log (group blog) — Rank: 1,738,471 (No blogs link here)
=34 Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs (Christina Lamb) — Rank: 1,738,471 (No blogs link here)
=34 Lord Rees-Mogg — Rank: 1,738,471 (No blogs link here)
Not Classified Money (group blog) — Not found on Technorati
NC Books Group (Alyson Rudd) Not found on Technorati but also not really a blog
NC Surf Nation (Alex Wade) — Not found on Technorati
NC UN Eyes Only (James Bone) — Not found on Technorati

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Online, Blogs, Newspapers, Journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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21 Responses to “Religion tops Times blogs”

  1. Fleet Street 2.0 Says:
    October 31st, 2006 at 9:53 am

    links from Technorati As Andrew Grant-Adamson provides hard data to back up his view that some big media blogs “bring little benefit to their papers,” I’m trying to keep track of some good-practice examples showing how blogs can be useful for traditional news organisations.

  2. Martin Stabe » links for 2006-10-31 Says:
    October 31st, 2006 at 6:20 pm

    […] Wordblog: Religion tops Times blogs Andrew Grant-Adamson looks at the inbound links of Times Online’s blogs and is unimpressed. Ruth Gledhill has the highest ranking Times blog on Technorati, followed by David Aaronovitch. (tags: blogs newspapers times journalism) […]

  3. Telegraph Blogs Says:
    November 1st, 2006 at 12:21 pm

    links from Technorati Andrew Grant-Adamson recently began an analysis of newspaper blogs (which is still ongoing) and asked why they are there. Is their purpose to show that “the paper is up with the trends in journalism”? Are they “dumping grounds for copy that would never get into the paper”? [IMG Stewart Jackson]

  4. cybersoc.com Says:
    November 1st, 2006 at 1:20 pm

    links from Technorati Analysis of the Technorati Ranks of The Times blogs

  5. travel4you Says:
    November 1st, 2006 at 2:41 pm

    links from Technorationgoing) and asked why they are there. Is their purpose to show that “the paper is up with the trends in journalism”? Are they “dumping grounds for copy that would never get into the paper”? [IMG Stewart Jackson]

  6. Médiablog Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 12:35 pm

    links from Technorati32,  a Guardian 12, a Sun 10, Mail 5 blogot működtet! Ezek egy része persze nem valódi blog, nincs mögöttük önálló egyéniséggel, véleménnyel bíró  szerző, inkább csak valamilyen témában egymás alá pakolt rövid szövegek. Egy következő bejegyzésében  aztán Andrew Grant-Adamson  alaposabban is megvizsgálja a Times blogjait.  A Technorati mérései szerint Ruth Gledhill vallással foglalkozó blogja ( Rank: 15,049,  773 link  160 blogból) a legolvasottabb közülük.   Nem rossz

  7. Tom Whitwell Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks for this. I wish I’d known you were doing this research before embarked on the same project myself (also looking at our internal audience figures) a couple of weeks ago. Technorati can be irritatingly slow…

    Ruth’s blog is a wonderful phenomenon. Last week I found myself reading a post there which - when you included the many erudite comments - ran to over 16,000 words.

    Tom (Online Communities Editor, The Times)

  8. Ruth Gledhill Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 1:50 pm

    Thank you for this report. I spend hours of my own time doing the blog, and sometimes end up working until 2am or 3am, it is such an addictive medium. I really love doing it so don’t resent the time. But I just might ask for a pay rise on the back of your write-up!
    Regards, Ruth

  9. Weblog - Ruth Gledhill - Times Online: Asbo on Lord Carey Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] Firstly, a plug for this blog, which seems to be doing quite well on Technorati, even though a bizarre glitch in the software means it doesn’t actually come up in any Technorati search. (Even on a Google blog search it only comes up as gobbledegook. Not that I spend my entire working day searching my own blog of course.) Now on to the real news. We report in today’s Times that Asbo’s, or anti-social behaviour orders for our readers across the Atlantic, are a regarded as "badges of honour" for today’s nice, civilised British youth. I expect former ABC George Carey, now Lord Carey of Clifton, might feel something of the same at being banned by Bangor Cathedral, the country’s oldest cathedral at the north-western heart of the uber-liberal Province of Wales, birthplace of our present ABC. I must declare a slight interest here. My own family hails from North Wales, recent ancestors were MPs in the province and in nearby Liverpool. There is even said to be an ancient Welsh saint, King and Prince or two who appear in our family tree, although I’ve not seen it myself, and for many years, until recently, my Welsh-speaking father was a priest in Bangor. But to all those folk who have already concluded otherwise, I want to make it absolutely clear that no-one in or remotely connected with my family was the source of this Carey Asbo story, subject to hilarious comment by Dave Walker at Cartoon Church. […]

  10. Ruth Gledhill Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 3:08 pm

    links from Technoratito me faster than my traditional sources, feel free to send it. Anonymity guaranteed. Also, any other news or comments you think I should post here or investigate for the paperpaper can be emailed to me at ruth.gledhill@thetimes.co.uk. Finally, a plug for this blog, which seems to be doing quite well on Technorati, even though a bizarre glitch in the software means it doesn’t actually come up in any Technorati search. (Even on a Google blog search it only comes up as gobbledegook. Not that I spend my entire

  11. Web 2.0 Television » More Newspaper Blogs and Porpoises … er, Purposes Says:
    November 3rd, 2006 at 11:51 pm

    […] Stabe later rounded up both Richmond's response and Grant-Adamson's followup post, which finds that a religion blog, "Articles of Faith" by Times of London's Ruth Gledhill, tops the, er, charts. (Stabe, no stranger to this blog's comments section, also today links to a spamblogger (it appears) rather than directly to my post on "evolving newspapers." Hmm.) […]

  12. Wordblog » Blog Archive » Technology tops Telegraph blogs Says:
    November 5th, 2006 at 12:45 pm

    […] Religion tops Times blogs […]

  13. Wordblog » Blog Archive » What is the purpose of newspaper blogs? reprise Says:
    November 5th, 2006 at 8:58 pm

    […] Religion tops Times blogs […]

  14. mathewingram.com/media » Looking at newspaper blogs Says:
    November 7th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

    […] Now Andrew Grant-Adamson has gone back at the subject and looked at some of the top-ranked blogs at both the Times and the Telegraph, using Technorati rankings (the closest thing we have to an authority on blog popularity). In his look at the Times’ 37 blogs, he notes that the religion blog of Ruth Gledhill is one of the best, and the most popular according to Technorati. […]

  15. mathewingram.com/media » Looking at newspaper blogs Says:
    November 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] Now Andrew Grant-Adamson has gone back at the subject and looked at some of the top-ranked blogs at both the Times and the Telegraph, using Technorati rankings (the closest thing we have to an authority on blog popularity). In his look at the Times’ 37 blogs, he notes that the religion blog of Ruth Gledhill is one of the best, and the most popular according to Technorati. […]

  16. Médiablog Says:
    November 13th, 2006 at 8:19 am

    links from Technorati32,  a Guardian 12, a Sun 10, Mail 5 blogot működtet! Ezek egy része persze nem valódi blog, nincs mögöttük önálló egyéniséggel, véleménnyel bíró  szerző, inkább csak valamilyen témában egymás alá pakolt rövid szövegek. Egy következő bejegyzésében  aztán Andrew Grant-Adamson  alaposabban is megvizsgálja a Times blogjait.  A Technorati mérései szerint Ruth Gledhill vallással foglalkozó blogja ( Rank: 15,049,  773 link  160 blogból) a legolvasottabb közülük.   Nem rossz

  17. BBC - Radio Five Live - Pods and Blogs Says:
    November 17th, 2006 at 5:36 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] Not stopping there, Adamson-Grant began analysing the number of blogs linking, according to technorati, to first The Times blogs and then to The Telegraph’s. […]

  18. xcitybob.com » Blog Archive » Journalism of the mind – Part One Says:
    November 17th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

    […] Andrew had walked in with a print out of an attack the BBC had made on his series of blogs revealing the Technorati ratings for blogs done by the newspapers and the BBC. (This revealed that the top blogger is Ruth Gledhill, the Religion correspondent of The Times.) He did not like the fact that they were accusing him of relying too much on the Technorati ratings, which don’t rate the BBC as highly as their own internal ratings. In fact, Andrew wrote that he doubted the accuracy of the Technorati ratings. But they are important because Technorati dominates the web on ratings. If you type in ‘blogging’ in Google you are guided to the Technorati ratings. Andrew’s exercise has called attention to their inconsistencies. Not least because his top blogger, Gledhill, was rated much lower two days later for reasons not yet explained. […]

  19. Martin Stabe » The Independent’s blogs: must do better Says:
    December 28th, 2006 at 10:56 am

    […] Remember the debate about the dubious quality of some British national newspaper blogs? It raged back in October and November, centering on Andrew Grant-Adamson’s analysis of the degree of other bloggers’ engagement with the blogs published by the Times and the Telegraph? […]

  20. What is the Value of Newspaper Blogs? » The Bivings Report Says:
    January 19th, 2007 at 10:21 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] Adamson-Grant followed up by looking up the Technorati rank of the blogs for two of the UK’s largest newspapers (the Times and the Telegraph). None of the blogs at these two papers ranked particularly high in Technorati (meaning not that many sites link to them). To put it in perspective, our blog, The Bivings Report was listed higher in the Technorati rankings than any of the UK newspaper blogs. […]

  21. Press Gazette Blogs - Fleet Street 2.0 » Beyond the blogwagon: Niche reporting at the New York Times Says:
    May 25th, 2007 at 8:22 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] Andrew Grant-Adamson provides hard data to back up his view that some big media blogs “bring little benefit to their papers,” […]

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