There are blogs and there are bloggers. There are mainstream blogs and there are those that aren’t.
Blogging, in my mind, isn’t necessarily, but a new transition that is one part of a test of big media. Can they develop and innovate quickly enough?
Below find my 10 favorite journalist bloggers: reporters associated with a mainstream medium who actively blog.
Last month, on a well-trafficked post of mine from July in which I list the 1o journalists I respect most, a reader commented that he wanted to see some of my favorite bloggers.
So, I ranked my favorites, keeping in mind original reporting, news content, linking, impact, fresh voice and innovative ideas. Here they are.
- Justin Fox on Curious Capitalist (Time magazine): He links. He thinks. He reports. He has a voice. Trim down some of those posts, and this just might be my favorite reported blog on the Internet.
- Saul Hansell on BITS (New York Times): It’s put best by new media consultant Jeff Jarvis (highlighted below): “One of the best examples of the new newspaper blog voice is Saul Hansell at the Times’ Bits blog. He gets personal and opinionated and is certainly breezier than his print persona and he also makes artistic use of the link to bloggers’ conversations and competitors’ news.” [Source]
- Dan McQuade on Philadelphia Will Do (Philadelphia Weekly): He’s funny, quick-witted and on point. While he doesn’t do much reporting on his own, he is a prolific linker, important in journalism 2.0.
- Dwight Silverman on TechBlog (Houston Chronicle): He is surely among the most prolific and covering a popular topic for a big newspaper, surely getting it big traffic. Silverman is doing it for the Houston Chronicle, considered the best blogging newspaper among the country’s 100 largest.
- Will Bunch on Attytood (Philadelphia Daily News): He is the biggest mainstream media blogger in Philadelphia, which keeps me interested, but I have expressed my distaste for how the Inqy operates his feed.
- Jeff Jarvis on Buzz Machine (City University of New York): Like Kingsbury, this isn’t exactly the model, as today Jarvis consults more newspapers than for which he reports, but the prolific blogger does have a column for the Guardian. Additionally, the future of newspapers cannot be ignored, and Jarvis has long said print is dead.
- Jim Romenesko on Romenesko (Poynter Online): Links galore at Romenesko, likely the best read blog in newsrooms across the country.
- Alex Kingsbury on AlexKingsbury.com (U.S. News & World Report): This is a bit of a stretch because this is more his professional site than a blog for his publication, but it’s worth noting a mainstream journalist posting his product, particularly because he is among the reporters I most admire.
- John Micek on Capitol Ideas (Allentown Morning Call): I’d like to see his longer posts replaced by more shorter, focused posts, but he has blossomed in the realm of linking. I am eager to include him to show that local and state government can fit in the form of speed and updates.
- Mark Luckie on 10,000 Words (Entertainment Weekly): This blog is about technology in media by an online producer, so news isn’t the focus, but the concept of combining original reporting, linking and thinking is here. He has voice, too.
Hat tip to Ryan Sholin, whose March 2008 post is worth visiting for those looking for the best journalism blogs, as opposed to mine, which focuses on bloggers.
Who am I missing? Who else should I be following? Any thoughts?
Photo courtesy of CrunchGear.
There are several I really enjoy, Christopher. See what you think. My favorite is Chris O’Brien’s Next Newsroom, talking about the future face of the newsroom. You have to see his latest video, sent in by a subscriber. It’s a 1981 interview with the San Fran Chronicle and Examiner, talking about offering their newspaper online. A Dial up system, it took two hours to upload.
Another I especially like is Reflections of a Newsosaur, by Alan Mutter, who describes himself as perhaps the only CEO in Silicon Valley who knows how to set type one letter at a time, just like his hero, Benjamin Franklin. Then there’s the industry insights found on Offlede, by Andrew Taylor of Florida Today.
One of my best resources on newsroom convergence, ethics, style and all things newsroom is Doug Fisher’s blog, Common Sense Journalism. USC Columbia professor of journalism and co-author of The Principles of Convergent Journalism, Fisher is a long time broadcast and print reporter and news editor for AP.
And – shameless plug – I like my own blog, too – NewspaperTiger – where I talk about and to community newspapers.
Right on Sharon. Thanks for sharing. Most I know, but I’ll have to check out at least one of those. Thanks for reading and commenting, subscribe and keep up!