2010: A year of Manchester blog-ness

A personal pick of the past twelve months;

January: Entertainment blog Manchester Confidential launched a new website – behind a paywall.
The doomed venture was dropped a few months later when it became clear that insufficient numbers of subscribers were willing to pay.

February: OK, not properly Manchester but it’s impact has been felt further afield.Hard to believe that Saddleworth News has only been in existence since February with its detailed coverage of the Phil Woolas case later in the year and the launch of the web-TV channel it’s quickly become part of the media landscape.

March: Concentrating on all things Manchester, InsidetheM60 launched just a month later with the general election soon raising its profile into an everyday experience for news hungry Mancunians.

April: The Manchester Egg found fame on the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog. after being hawked round many a bar.

May: Elections, elections, elections. What more can I say – the blogosphere went into overdrive, plus Marketing Manchester released this funky map of Manchester’s digital scene. Sadly the link for this blog is still incorrect but even so, a great interactive.

June: The MEN’s most prolific blogger, David Ottewell stirred up a controversy which even went international with his  comments about hyperlocal blogs at a time when the movement towards local news publishing continued to gain confidence across the UK.

July: Bloggers aplenty were rewarded with Manchester hosting the Wordcamp UK unconference in the city.

August: Mixing food with micro-blogging, GastroClub_Manchester burst onto the scene with exotic menus and displays of gastronomy. My only regret is not having yet been able to make one of the events…..there’s a New Year’s Resolution to be made if ever there was one.

September: Could it really be the case that there wasn’t much blogging in September? It seemed so to me but please feel free to put me right on this point…….to make up for it, I’m going to cheat and get a mention in for Beards of Manchester. This crowdsourced charity calender actually launched in October – and it’s in the shops now!

October: The year’s most unlikely social media success came from the police. Greater Manchester Police’s innovative use of Twitter proved to be controversial in some quarters but I think ultimately brought a greater understanding of police work in the city.

November: Manchester’s intrepid frog bloggers made it to Costa Rica to bring a series of posts from a sloth sanctuary. It’s all true – come on, I couldn’t make it up!

December: Good to see Manchester-based blogger, photographer and multimedia journalist Ciara Leeming get recognition for her work being featured on the BBC News viewfinder blog.

Those listed are just my one pick per month personal favourites – I could have continued with plenty more examples such as the the fifth annual Manchester Blog Awards held in October. (Well done to both
LoveLevenshulme and Fat Roland On Electronica on both being named as blog of the year. Full list of winners here.)

All that remains for this year is to wish all those who read and contribute to this blog a very Happy New Year!
Thanks especially due to guest bloggers David Hartley, Peter Barton and the ever-present Adrian Slatcher for their support throughout the year.

If you’d like to contribute to keeping the traffic flowing on The Mancunian Way by blogging on an occasional, or regular, basis in 2011, please get in touch either via the comments below or by email to SarahMancunianWay at Googlemail.com.