Forget about someone's resume or how they present themselves at a party. Can they blog or not? The blog doesn't lie.

That's always been my test for what makes a story: is this something journalists would gossip with each other about?

Google demotes search results that don't get clicked on.

Most good media come out of somebody saying, 'This should exist; this is something I want to read.

As a print journalist, if you hear a rumour you try to stand it up and if you can't, the story dies. With a blog you can throw the rumour out there and ask for help. You can say: 'We don't know if this is true or not.

No picture, no footage, no story. The people these days require some visual evidence in order to believe what they read.

Google and others truncate headlines at 70 characters. On the Manti Teo story, Deadspin's scoop fell down the Google search results, overtaken by copycat stories with simpler headlines. Deadspin's headline was 118 characters. Vital information - 'hoax' - was one of the words that was cut off.