The debate produced a few interesting moments and plenty of advice for young journalists looking to make it in the digital future. Butterworth offered my favorite quote, actually conceding that blogs had a positive effect on niche and expert reporting--while still railing against newspaper blogs in general.
"Presently, the reality of the blogathons at some newspapers in the U.S. seems to be less expert disquisition and more inquisitorial musing on American Idol or Lindsey Lohan. Fine, clearly there is a market for this kind of pop cultural chatter – but how much is it enhancing the newspaper as a business? Not as much as devoting more resources to producing original, insightful and well-written content, I’d warrant.
Second, the idea that there are hundreds of thousands of “niche experts” blogging away (or ready and willing to blog) lacks empirical evidence. I’m very impressed with scienceblogs.com – read the surgeon/scientist “respectful insolence” and you get a real sense of how the mainstream need to upgrade their medical reporting."
Check out Jay Rosen's newspaper-blog-analyzing-machine over at NYU for more information, but for now, listen to Butterworth...
» The Great Newspaper Blogging Debate Concludes from ThePublishingSpot
As I noted earlier, The Financial Times has entered the blogging fray. Last month, they built this temporary blog to answer questions from readers about a controversial article by Trevor Butterworth. For better or for worse, the site genera... [Read More]
Tracked on: March 16, 2006 8:55 AM | Permalink to Trackback