Monday, January 08, 2007

News Papers and the Internet

This whole blogging thing is getting serious. Especially in you are a traditional journalist working for a daily newspaper. This is an interesting article from the New York Times. It basically says many accomplished journalists are leaving newspapers and magazines for Internet based news organizations and blogs.

I started writing this blog in June of 2005 as a way of getting back to my journalistic roots. It has been a lot of fun. I have written almost 600 entries now and I still enjoy it as much as ever. The conundrum is however, most of my little 'two minute to read blogs' are inspired by reading other more traditional publications. If they all start disappearing, (any bets on the survival of the Albuquerque Tribune?) then our sources for information will be more heavily skewed towards digital origins rather than ones that use ink.

A case in point about this is Heath Haussamen's blog in Las Cruces. He was a reporter for the Las Cruces Sun News who bolted to start his own blog and is trying to make a living at it. I advertised on it during my campaign for Land Commissioner. I also advertised on Joe Monahan's blog. Those guys were cleaning up on all the pols but now their advertising has seemed to dwindle. I read both of them daily and Heath has actually asked me to write a monthly column for him. I will try to do it once in a while, but I feel the secret to some of these blogs is to keep things brief. Don't be long winded or the office and government workers wont have the time to read it.

I am not sure how one might make a living doing this blogging unless you get some mighty big breaks like the guy who does the Daily Kos.

Overall, these blogs are all good to have around because it gives so many different view points. When you read something you don't like in your daily newspaper editorial pages, you can go find a blog that makes better points on the other side of the issue. That makes it worth it right there.

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