Paul Boag: give web teams more authority

Headscape co-founder Paul Boag has written on his blog about the need for web teams to have real authority. Within, he asked what would happen if subscriptions and advertising people of national newspapers overruled those creating content, and concluded: "We would quickly find most newspapers completely overwhelmed with advertising." Although a seemingly extreme scenario, Boag added that this is very much the case for many websites and web teams, with those working on sites often seen as "nothing more than technicians who implement the ideas of others", lacking authority and ultimately fashioning experiences that communicate mixed messages.

We asked Boag why the web has so often gone in this direction, with marketing people calling the shots, wrecking sites with masses of advertising. "To answer that, you need to look at the history of most large organisational websites," he replied. "They began life as part of IT. IT is all about implementation, not communication. Over time, this became apparent and so those who ran the company website were moved across into marketing. However, they were still seen as implementors who would implement the dictates of their bosses in marketing.

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