Wired plans to issue Internet style guide

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Wednesday that Wired magazine plans to introduce a new stylebook that would put the AP stylebook and others back in the 20th century.

Friedman writes, “The updated stylebook will highlight such current Web-publishing issues as anti-spam techniques, online community standards and ways to increase rankings on Internet search engines like Google, [Wired.com editor Evan] Hansen said.

“Wired also intends to educate journalists about appropriate, not to mention legal, behavior on the Web. ‘People are prone to grab pictures and put them on a Web site,’ he noted. Copyright infringement, anyone?

“‘There is a whole other set of codes [on the Web] that augments the rules of grammar,’ he added. ‘It’s our sweet spot: digital technology and the changing culture, and society.’

“All kinds of journalists will find practical applications in the guide. ‘When I talk to copy editors, [they often ask], ‘What are we going to do about tagging these articles, and spamming?’ and all of these other technology questions,’ Hansen said.”

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