Wednesday, May 03, 2006 |
Yet Another Newspaper Blog: Blue Notes
With all this in mind, I (belatedly) introduce Blue Notes, the Times' essay into blogdom, an effort that brings to the fore the whole question of why a newspaper should blog in the first place. Faster reaction time? The Internet was built for that; they don't need dead trees to give us the news anymore. Sports opinion? Didn't they hire T.J. Simers and Bill Plaschke to dispense those? In their introductory post (posted Monday, by the way, so I'm not too late on this), authors Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky tell us, "we'll be using our clubhouse access to get player interviews and inside dope on the team." Ah, so more stuff that the Times couldn't hold for space reasons, like this interview with J.D. Drew, or this one with Sandy Alomar, Jr. So that's cool — I like free stuff as much as the next guy. So long as it doesn't devolve into one five-line post every three days when the writers have deadlines on their real projects, I'll be fine. Sidebar links a-comin'.
Update: I should have mentioned that it was Steve, the former proprietor of Fire Jim Tracy, posting in today's Dodger Thoughts thread (in a masterful piece about Grady Little's bullpen usage) who brought this to my attention. I think Steve's summation nails the problem I have with the newspaper blogs I've seen to date:
The times has started their dodger blog and it is written by cardinal fans. The times doesn't get it. One blogs because one cares.Just so, and one gets the impression that, for many of these writers, this is just another assignment.
: 5/03/2006 02:01:00 PMYou can also blog because you're getting paid. Neither reason guarantees success or failure.
Caring is great in combination with perspective. I think that's a good formula. You need both.
Plaschke and Simers are the opinion guys, but they write about all sorts of stuff, so it's not really the same. As for game stories, if I watched the game, why do I need someone to tell me what happened? If done correctly, these can sort of fill a niche for the more involved fans.
: 5/03/2006 07:23:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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