Chris Barton: Blast from an IT journo's past

COMMENT

After 18 years of writing about computers, IT editor Chris Barton is slinging his mouse and hanging up his keyboard - no doubt to the delight of Microsoft, Telecom, Paul Swain, Douglas Webb and others who complain about him.

Before he bows out, Barton gives himself one last interview - asking the tough questions about IT journalism.

Q. IT journalism, it's a joke - right?.

A. You might have been able to say that 18 years ago, but say it today and you're the joke - or a sad Luddite. Wake up. IT is so much a part of daily life - at work and at home - that anyone who argues it's not a legitimate field of journalistic endeavour has got rocks in their head.

Q. Hmmm ... , touchy, but you would have to agree IT is very boring.

A. Well that's possibly because some IT journalists make it that way with bad writing riddled with incomprehensible jargon. It's fair to say that some of the topics that interest IT people are mind-numbingly dull. God knows I've sat through far too many PowerPoint presentations that make poking your eyes out with hot sticks seem preferable. But many people find cars, sport, fishing, gardening, etc boring.

Quite early on I learned that while IT per se may indeed be dull, the stuff one can do with IT - new forms of publishing, graphics, music, art, theft, fraud, damage, pornography, etc - are all fairly interesting.

Q. But does anyone actually read your stuff?

A. In newspapers IT coverage is mostly confined to the ghetto - the secret section where most readers rarely venture - and if they do, they tend turn the pages quickly, like moving hurriedly through a scary neighbourhood.

Some IT stories - usually those involving cyber perverts, hackers, viruses or computer bungles and breakdowns - do make the front page. So those get read a lot. Then there are those that make the business pages - generally news about multimillion-dollar computer deals, outsourcing, broadband, Microsoft, Telecom and the like.

Further down the chain are the specialist Connect pages in their Tuesday ghetto.

And yes, it's fair to say they're read by a smaller group - generally comprising a high proportion of geeks and train spotters. But I'm constantly surprised by the range of people who ring or email about stories on those pages.

The Friday Connect pages - aimed at IT and digital electronics consumers - get a different audience again. Potentially - judging by the success of local magazines like PC World, NetGuide and Tone - it's a huge readership.

Q. Zzzzzz ... , sorry I nodded off. So how many readers do you have - on your so called "specialist" pages?

A. To be honest I don't really know. If had to guess I'd say 15, maybe 25 per cent of Herald readership. I must have some readers because people email in each week.

Q. How many?

A. It depends on the topic. Last week, for example, when I wrote about Swain's local loop unbundling nightmare I got 25 emails and five phone calls the next day. On other occasions - such as when the column gets slashdotted, or when I write about open source - I've had my inbox swamped by hundreds of emails. On a normal week I'd say about half a dozen.

Q. So you have six readers a week - impressive. Let's talk about another dubious aspect of your trade - junkets. So called "IT journalists" take an alarming number of these - and you have probably taken more than most. Ethically, you're corrupted and unclean. How can live with yourself?

A. Ah yes, the junkets. I will miss those. I have marvelled at the obscene amount of money computer and telco companies spend flying journalists around the globe to cover conferences, trade shows and visit their headquarters, factories and R&D labs.

We used to work out the cost of each trip - business class flights and hotel accommodation - as at least $10,000 and sometimes $20,000 per person which we figured was the value the vendors placed on an article. Something was very wrong with the picture - especially when you consider the freelance rate for a 500-word IT article is $200.

We would say it was the price they had to pay to make us sit through their boring PowerPoint presentations.

From a journalist's point of view, the trips were very pleasant, but also educational. You'd not only learn what life was like at the sharp end of the plane, but also get a sense of the company culture, see product development and manufacture first hand - and get access to the managers, techies and marketers making those products happen.

Q. Company culture? Oh please. Come on - you were being bought.

A. No not at all. Generally I'd find something to write about from each trip - but sometimes there would be no news and you wouldn't write anything.

The vendors and their PR companies think they can control what's written, but that's a dance that goes on in all areas of journalism. More often than not, things on the trips would go badly wrong or a bad company result would come out - aspects IT journalists would seize upon with glee. When the PR rang up to complain about the story you knew you were on the right track.

Q. Yes, sure. Is it also true that IT journalists get paid lots more than real journalists?

A. Yes, that's a paradox. If what we do is so undervalued and despised how is it we are better paid - especially those who work in the IT trade press? You could say that's because the job is so boring that they have to pay more to keep writers there, but that would be unkind.

Q. Ha - a tough job but somebody has to do it. Cute. So why are you getting out - has the boredom finally got to you?

A. You're a very cynical man. No, not at all. I've had an amazing time writing about IT and been fortunate enough to be there from the beginning of the age of the PC and to witness the birth of the internet - two world-changing pieces of technology. The internet is without a doubt more significant than the printing press.

I'm moving on to try my hand at general feature writing - something I've always wanted to do. Some of those features will involve IT, and I'll continue contributing a monthly column.

But I'd like to thank all those in the industry who I've worked with over the years, and especially those half a dozen readers I get each week. Truly, it hasn't been boring, it's been a blast.

Q. Zzzzzzz ... .

* Email Chris Barton

* Peter Griffin, familiar to readers of this page, is the new IT editor.