Bloggin'

[I'll never tell]

I consider myself a halfway hip individual, but I've never really jumped on the blog bandwagon. Don't know why, I just don't read them.

That being said, recently I have been thrown onto aforementioned wagon and told to drive our sports department into the future.

I'm halfway clueless.

All my guys have to do blogs (we're midsized and we already do desk). Here's the question(s):

Who does blogs right? I would like to print off and/or send links of good blogs to my writers to give them something or style to mimic.

If you do blog, how much time a day do you spend on it? We're required to do (at least) four a week. With as much as my guys already do, I wonder where this extra time will come from.

My boss has already told me that he thinks the blogs need to be a good cross section of each person's beat, complete with links to other stories and such. I was just wondering if this was some pie-in-the-sky dream, or if everybody's is like this.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Mooninite]

We're supposed to be getting blogs too at our paper...but essentially the hierarchy is clueless about them.

I started my own this summer and prep sports fans around our area seem to like it. I started it to sharpen my skills a little bit and get things out there that we didn't have the space to print.

For each entry I may spend 15 or 20 minutes writing. I just kind of use a topic that interests me for that day.

You can look at my blog here...

http://blanchard-river-buzz.blogspot.com/

 

[BRoth]

Buster Onley's on EPSN.com is one of my favorites, so is David Pinto at baseballmusings.com

they both get the most important parts of blogging down - write often, include links and don't get too preachy

 

[MC Sports Guy]

We're starting blogs in the next month or so. It's just myself and two other full-timers, and I'm asking that we do at least three per week. Then, once a week, we're going to print the "Best of the Blogs" in the paper edition. Maybe one entry each from all three of us. Not sure how it's going to work out, but I think it has good possibilities.

 

[Freelance Hack]

It's not sports related, but the Lexington Herald-Leader's PolWatchers has become one of my daily must reads. I think the format can easily be converted to sports with little problem.

Depending on how active your writers' beats are, this may be the best option. Have just one collective blog and let everyone contribute to it. Then, depending on the traffic or repsonses generated, you can spin-off subjects into separate blogs.

Just one hack's opinion.

 

[Dale Cooper]

Peter Abraham. Yankees beat writer for the Journal News.

http://yankees.lohudblogs.com/

 

[Perry White]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/

 

[35in44]

I agree on Steinberg's blog from the Washington Post. It's one of my favorite reads of the day.

 

[Moderator1]

No question - what they said. Dan is very, very, VERY good. The shame of it is he isn't in the paper much (if at all, can't remember the last time I saw one of his stories).

 

[Perry White]

No question - what they said. Dan is very, very, VERY good. The shame of it is he isn't in the paper much (if at all, can't remember the last time I saw one of his stories).

Aren't they reprinting some of his blog entries in the space where Kornheiser used to be?

 

[Perry White]

You can look at my blog here...

http://blanchard-river-buzz.blogspot.com/

Isn't pink an odd choice? :o

 

[WSKY]

I got a blog for the college team that I cover. I spend about 15 minutes 4-5 times a week updating it. It's good for feedback and interaction with fans, so overall I like it. The main thing, though, is keeping it fresh. If you don't update it for like a week, people will likely go elsewhere for that sort of thing. Plus its much different writing a blog than a gamer or feature on the same subject matter.

 

[leo1]

i know the minneapolis star tribune just started one a few weeks ago. you can find it on the web site. it was so-so but maybe it's gotten better? it was more reaction and commentary than breaking news.

 

[lantaur]

One baseball writer I know (and I'm sure someone else here does as well) just got another (better) job and the reason he stood out to his new employers was because of the great job he did with his blog.

I doubt too many employers are all of a sudden going to cough up more pay, of course (although I guess it's something to mention on a yearly review), but I'm also guessing many job descriptions are being rewritten.

When you start having "mandates" like do it two or three times a week, then it becomes a chore. Yes, a blog should be updated frequently to keep reader interest ... but if you make it a chore, that's what it is going to be.

And remember, these aren't 12-15 inch stories ... just get to the point, maybe provide a link, and move on (snappy, creative writing is a plus :)).

 

[Mooninite]

I'm secure in my manhood. Plus when I started it...I had no idea what in the hell I was doing.

 

[FileNotFound]

Another non-sports related blog that kicks ass: http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv

An absolute must-read if you're in the tech industry, and extremely entertaining for those who aren't.

 

[TopOfTheCircle]

There are things about the concept of the blog that you must understand.

1. Beware of unvarnished and unedited ideas making it into a blog and take on lives of their own only to be later proven false. It can be traced back to you.

2. Know your audience. Steinberg's Bog occasionally caters to the ADD/ADHD crowd where he adds onto entries five, six times a day (see the Nick Rimando water-gun assasination game).

3. Don't use it as a Post-It note-clearing device; if you put up five or six different subjects on a blog over the course of a day, and you have nothing the next day, you have a gap. I'd hate to have a gap of any kind.

4. Don't publish an two-paragraph idea which would have made for a great column or enterprise story, only to see some other writer take the idea and run with it (that has happened to me).

5. Don't allow the blog to take over your life without asking the newspaper to compensate you for it. That goes for vodcasts, podcasts, and other new media.

6. Don't use it as a newspaper marketing tool: "Make sure to read the Friday edition of The Blab for my exclusive interview with Paris Hilton's underwear designer and his thoughts on the paparazzi's threats to democracy!"

7. In other words, although some blogs out there are "stream of consciousness" diaries written by people willing to put details of their lives "out there" (see: Washingtonienne), others have just become compilations of what other people said (see: RedState or Free Republic) rather than just rational thought.

8. Keep your audience wanting more and be authoritative. I am finishing up a 15-part series on why the National Federation of State High School Associations should not mandate eyewear on field hockey players. Just little bits of the argument every day rather than one magnum opus.

9. Blogs are now so diffuse that you can't really talk about a "blogosphere" anymore; there are little groups here and there, often starting with political orientation or location. A liberal blogger in Washington, DC, for example, won't give a rip about an Allen Iverson blog in Denver.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Another non-sports related blog that kicks ass: http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv

An absolute must-read if you're in the tech industry, and extremely entertaining for those who aren't.

FNF - thanks for that link. Good stuff.

 

[dragonfly]

One of our best blogs basically publishes his notebook for tommorrow's paper throught the day on his blog. There are other randoms tidbits on there, but most of the juicy stuff is what makes up his notebook the next day in the paper. People love it.

 

[tenacious_g]

Tried to get the Internet folk to get me one up and running by August so I could do it during the college football season (I am sports editor and beat writer for our town's DI team). They dragged their feet so I started my own.

Here is is http://grammerschool.blogspot.com

I'm at a 25,000 circ. for perspective sake. It is starting to outdraw our features section each week in hits. The hits really started getting up there when I a) realized just posting on a regular basis, even when not all that interesting are a must and b) started keeping up with replying in the comments section. The interaction (not just a blogger posting) is a pretty important part, in my opinion.

I used to think the posts needed to be LOOONG... they don't. And I used to think I needed to have a great idea for every post. I don't.