2 - Wannabe Hacks

A collaborative blog by a group of young journalists in London, with occasional guest contributions from further afield, writing in a punchy, engaging style about all things journalism, taking the journalism blogging world by the scruff of its neck and shaking it with a little ambition and attitude.

No, FleetStreetBlues hasn't listed itself in its rundown of the UK's ten best journalism blogs - although thankyou to the several people who suggested we should - but we like to see a little of ourselves in our list's runner-up, new kids on the block the Wannabe Hacks.

Only set up in August, when the Student, the Freelancer, the Intern, the Chancer and the Detective (since replaced by the Maverick) converged on the Big Smoke to find their fame and fortune, the Wannabe Hacks immediately stood out with a certain sense of style and swagger - and they haven't looked back.

OK, so we don't agree with everything they say - why would we? - and the occasional post is a little raw (a post about many student journalists being too proud to work for the 'Daily Fail' had many of our longer-in-the-tooth readers understandably up in arms).

But agreeing with everything isn't really the point. In what's becoming a bit of a theme for this list, the Wannabe Hacks earn maximum respect for simply doing, rather than writing about thinking about planning about how they might one day do. In a few short months they've stirred up debate, written for the New Statesman and (several times) for the Guardian, redesigned the entire blog, conjured up dozens of thoughtful and amusing posts, covered live events, published original video and even produced and run a series of podcasts. The student has quite definitely become the master. 

The question for 2011 of course is whether they can keep up the punishing pace they've set themselves, particularly as some evolve into fully-fledged hackdom and start to get to grips with full-time jobs (the Intern's already scored himself a spot on the Guardian). Here's hoping they do.