Blogging For Journalists / from SreeTips.com

Some comments by J-bloggers - journalists who blog - from Tim Porter, who asked several reporters about the advantages of blogging.

Among the responses is this one, from Michael Bazeley, Silicon Beat, San Jose Mercury News:

"I think blogging has also sharpened my reporting some. Because Matt and I put original content that comes from original reporting on the blog, we are spending more time mining our beats, talking to sources and reading about issues. We’re consuming more information, which can only be good."

Here’s a guide to blogs from the NYT’s Rich Meislin. In an example of how things work online, instead of being an internal document, it’s offered up to the public as well.

Blogs 101
By Rich Meislin 

o get the feel of Web logs and blogging, visit some of these sites. Most blogs carry links to other blogs on related topics or that the author likes (known as a blogroll). This page is under development; feel free to suggest your own finds. Business and sports are being built, and suggestions are particularly welcome.

On Feb. 17, 2006, the Financial Times Magazine ran a major story about blogging and what it all means.

Financial Times Magazine
Feb. 17, 2006

Time for the Last Post
By Trevor Butterworth

Is blogging really an information revolution? Is it about to drive the mainstream news media into oblivion? Or is it just another crock of virtual gold - a meretricious equivalent of all those noisy Internet start-ups that were going to build a brave "new economy" a few years ago?

Also see the temporary blog created by the FT to discuss issues raised in the article. 

In Nov. 2003, New York magazine ran a piece about six of the biggest bloggers in NYC.

Blog Blog Blog
The New York Weblog explosion has created a new wave of chattering-class grandees. So what if they’re sitting at home in their bathrobes?
By Simon Dumenco

Who are these people? Well, there are way too many of them to count (or hire). But what follows is a look at a handful of some of the most compelling players.

Of course, since as of last week there were 2,767 blogs being published in New York City (according to the charming site nycbloggers.com), I expect to be blogged to death for my choices.

 

As part of the Feb. 2006 cover story, NY magazine ran a chart looking at the top 50 blogs and wrote short, useful descriptions of each. 

Linkology
By Stuart Luman

There are upwards of 27 million blogs in the world. To discover how they relate to one another, we’ve taken the most-linked-to 50 and mapped their connections. Each arrow represents a hypertext link that was made sometime in the past 90 days. Think of those links as votes in an endless global popularity poll. Many blogs vote for each other: “blogrolling.” Some top-50 sites don’t have any links from the others shown here, usually because they are big in Japan, China, or Europe—regions still new to the phenomenon.

Be sure to read this New York magazine cover story, featuring Peter Rojas of Engadget. 

Blogs to Riches: The Have and Have-nots of the Blogging Boom  - Feb. 2006
By Clive Thompson

EXCERPT:

By all appearances, the blog boom is the most democratized revolution in media ever. Starting a blog is ridiculously cheap; indeed, blogging software and hosting can be had for free online. There are also easy-to-use ad services that, for a small fee, will place advertisements from major corporations on blogs, then mail the blogger his profits. Blogging, therefore, should be the purest meritocracy there is. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nobody from the sticks or a well-connected Harvard grad. If you launch a witty blog in a sexy niche, if you’re good at scrounging for news nuggets, and if you’re dedicated enough to post around the clock—well, there’s nothing separating you from the big successful bloggers, right? I can do that.

In theory, sure. But if you talk to many of today’s bloggers, they’ll complain that the game seems fixed.