Margo’s Webdiary moves house

"A long time ago in a far away land reigned the establishment Kingo’s Club Chaos, sometimes now referred to as Ye Olde Webdiary."

Back in 2001 Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston set up an online diary at the Herald’s web site. Margo’s Webdiary soon turned into an experiment in public journalism. Webdiary never sat comfortably in its online home and earlier this week Margo finally pulled the plug and set up a new site with the help of her contributors.

From the start, nobody loved Webdiary as much as Tim Blair. So when Margo made the move to the new site Tim was there to drive traffic her way. By early 2002 even Glen Reynolds of Instapundit was commenting on Blair’s pathological Margo obsession.

Over at the old Parish Pump, Ken Parish didn’t really see what the critics were complaining about. "Love her or hate her," said Ken, "Margo’s Web Diary has made a significant contribution to opening up genuine participatory civic dialogue in Australia…"

Dialogue has always been what Webdiary is about and the site was “highly commended” by Walkley Award judges in 2001. Even Blair’s American buddy Matt Welch noticed.

With any luck Margo and veteran contributors like Jack Robertson, Polly Bush and Harry Heidelberg will find a way to keep the project afloat. Read more at:

Crikey: ‘Margo Kingston goes solo‘ by Christian Kerr

Bleeding Edge: ‘Double diary, as Margo Kingston goes freelance‘ by Charles Wright

Radical Reference: ‘Webdiary is Changing the Nature of News‘ Josef Imrich

The Fifth Estate: ‘Margo Kingston gives SMH the flick‘ by Scott Elliott

The House of Wheels: ‘Webdiary spam and invasion of privacy‘ by Leigh Cartwright

Marty’s Insight: ‘Maneuvering Margos‘ by Martin Kidd

Satirical site: ‘Margo Kingston’s Webdiary // Welfare Working‘ You know you’ve made it when someone creates a blog just to send you up!