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# The Independent partners with Livejournal
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2008/11/the_independent_partners_with/
- Published: 2008-11-28T17:30:53.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-28T14:31:01.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Blogging, Journalism, livejournal, national newspapers, newspaper blogs, the independent

\[!\[LiveJournal logo\](https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2008/11/202px-Livejournal-logo.png?w=960)\](https://i2.wp.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Livejournal-logo.png)Image via \[Wikipedia\](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Livejournal-logo.png) 

\*\[The Independent\](http://www.independent.co.uk/ "The Independent")\*, of all our national newspapers, had a reputation for terrible, half-hearted blogging, and \[has done for years\](http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2007/01/newspapers\_to\_b.html). It was quite a surprise, then, to see that it’s entered into \[partnership with blog-as-social-network site Livejournal\](http://news.livejournal.com/111415.html) to relaunch its blogs. Now, I’ve been an LJ user since 2001 – it’s where my very \[first blog\](http://adders.livejournal.com/) lives – and I’ve always thought of it more as a communication tool than a publishing platform, but it clearly has aspirations elsewhere, as the news post describes the partnership as their “first attempt to engage on the ground in the UK” – which I’ll try not to be offended by… 

Jimmy Leach, the paper’s editorial director for digital, has [posted about the launch](http://jimmyleach.independentminds.livejournal.com/579.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), in a way that suggests they see the site as something akin to *The Telegraph*‘s [My Telegraph](http://my.telegraph.co.uk/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com):

> \*But this is mere tinkering to the major new aspect of the Independent  
> Minds – and that’s that you too can become bloggers on this site. [Just register ](http://www.livejournal.com/integration/independent/learnmore.bml?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)(with  
> LiveJournal who are providing the back-end to all this) and you can add  
> your voice to the others on this site and share your thoughts with the  
> huge and growing audience the site has. You do have to register, I’m  
> afraid – some may find it a pain, but its mean’t to be a community, not  
> a free-for-all.  
> \*

The design of the [Independent Minds](http://www.livejournal.com/integration/independent/learnmore.bml?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) section, as the co-branded area has been christened, is actually pretty nice, and they advertise a pretty wide range of contributors. It’s only when you click through that you get a feel of how patchy the posting is right now. [Sex columnist Catherine Townsend posted yesterday](http://ctownsend.livejournal.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), which is good, but [foreign editor Raymond Whitaker](http://raymondwhitaker.independentminds.livejournal.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) hasn’t posted for two weeks. Only the most prolific posters seems to be [garnering any comments at all](http://j-rentoul.livejournal.com/2666.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com).

An interesting idea, certainly. But does it have any more legs than The Independent’s last effort in blogging?

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