Blog blog blah...
So, in case you weren’t aware, this blog exists because I’m taking a class that requires it. I’m not complaining myself. I will probably continue to post after my schooling ends (in less than a month!!!!!). What you’ve read before (or will read, I hope, if you’re just tuning in) is about 50 percent required by a class, and 50 percent posts based on my own impetus to write. On the required half, I’ve found most of the discussion of some value. I find that many writers do better when they are working within limitations. It requires a little more creativity.
But sometimes it’s just frustrating, like this post here. I’m supposed to write about blogs run by traditional media that I like and don’t like. The problem is the “like” portion. I stare at the screen thinking, “I have to write about news blogs that I like?” because like most sane people, I turn to more non-traditional means when it comes to blogging. That’s the whole point isn’t it?
I find as I troll through most newspapers that even the few that I feel are doing decent work with blogs fall slightly short of what I think is possible. The Spokesman-Review, a newspaper that I respect quite a bit, does has some of the best blogs I’ve seen, but even as I run through their website I grow increasingly frustrated by reading the news on the web.
Newspaper sites run anywhere from four to six columns wide, making the entire experience a dizzying rollercoaster ride on the eyes. I spend half of my time distinguishing the real content from the ads. Then I have to figure out what content I am looking for.
I’ll give S-R’s blogs some credit though. Their Transparent Newsroom blog is a brilliant idea. It’s open to staff members and a few selected readers. They can post on the paper’s blog there, or on their own blogs, hosted on Google’s Blogger platform. This gives them the freedom to not stick to the paper’s convention. I’ve rarely seen a news staff so willingly cast themselves off to the critical public. I imagine editor Steve Smith stepping out in front of a group of picketers, throwing his arms out and saying “Ok, have at it!”
Unfortunately my biggest criticism of these blogs is also present here. Where do you find them? Sure, blog central is visible on the front page, but it’s more than halfway down the page, which if you’ve ever visited a newspaper website, you know how much you have to scroll through to find it. Their sports blog is a little more accessible, visible at the top under the sports column. Get into some of these blogs and quickly notice how each page looks vastly different. It would be nice to get the feeling as I move around a newspapers webpage that I am still in fact in the webpage. Finally after some searching I did find their blog directory.
Spokesman-Review, which I think is news blogging at its best, still falls short on the general navigation and search, but luckily does not fail as abysmally as its Washington compatriot, The Seattle Times, over on the other side of the mountains.
I don’t even want to link you to the blogs found there yet. Just hop over to the front page of the Seattle Times, and try to find their blogs.
Of the few they have, they’re buried deep within the site, and not readily available for readers. I feel like newspapers should really put their best foot forward with the online medium, and make the exclusive material easy to find, otherwise it continues to just be a poorly designed regurgitation of the material that fell on my doorstep this morning.
As I find the content, the blogs are limited to tech news and business. The blogs really lack their best use, which is a conversation about news and the community. It seems to me like the Times is more interested in using blogs to promote technology and business than they are to conversation and criticism. It, sadly, makes the blogs seem less trustworthy.
Maybe you'll run through these sites and have no problem. And in fact on the Times business page they put the blog in decent prominence, but what makes me frustrated is, even in the best situations, the lack of consistency. In a medium that has mastered how to present information on the page so well, can't we find a way to keep the online content from looking like Miriam-Webster’s vomited into an Ethernet cable?
But sometimes it’s just frustrating, like this post here. I’m supposed to write about blogs run by traditional media that I like and don’t like. The problem is the “like” portion. I stare at the screen thinking, “I have to write about news blogs that I like?” because like most sane people, I turn to more non-traditional means when it comes to blogging. That’s the whole point isn’t it?
I find as I troll through most newspapers that even the few that I feel are doing decent work with blogs fall slightly short of what I think is possible. The Spokesman-Review, a newspaper that I respect quite a bit, does has some of the best blogs I’ve seen, but even as I run through their website I grow increasingly frustrated by reading the news on the web.
Newspaper sites run anywhere from four to six columns wide, making the entire experience a dizzying rollercoaster ride on the eyes. I spend half of my time distinguishing the real content from the ads. Then I have to figure out what content I am looking for.
I’ll give S-R’s blogs some credit though. Their Transparent Newsroom blog is a brilliant idea. It’s open to staff members and a few selected readers. They can post on the paper’s blog there, or on their own blogs, hosted on Google’s Blogger platform. This gives them the freedom to not stick to the paper’s convention. I’ve rarely seen a news staff so willingly cast themselves off to the critical public. I imagine editor Steve Smith stepping out in front of a group of picketers, throwing his arms out and saying “Ok, have at it!”
Unfortunately my biggest criticism of these blogs is also present here. Where do you find them? Sure, blog central is visible on the front page, but it’s more than halfway down the page, which if you’ve ever visited a newspaper website, you know how much you have to scroll through to find it. Their sports blog is a little more accessible, visible at the top under the sports column. Get into some of these blogs and quickly notice how each page looks vastly different. It would be nice to get the feeling as I move around a newspapers webpage that I am still in fact in the webpage. Finally after some searching I did find their blog directory.
Spokesman-Review, which I think is news blogging at its best, still falls short on the general navigation and search, but luckily does not fail as abysmally as its Washington compatriot, The Seattle Times, over on the other side of the mountains.
I don’t even want to link you to the blogs found there yet. Just hop over to the front page of the Seattle Times, and try to find their blogs.
Of the few they have, they’re buried deep within the site, and not readily available for readers. I feel like newspapers should really put their best foot forward with the online medium, and make the exclusive material easy to find, otherwise it continues to just be a poorly designed regurgitation of the material that fell on my doorstep this morning.
As I find the content, the blogs are limited to tech news and business. The blogs really lack their best use, which is a conversation about news and the community. It seems to me like the Times is more interested in using blogs to promote technology and business than they are to conversation and criticism. It, sadly, makes the blogs seem less trustworthy.
Maybe you'll run through these sites and have no problem. And in fact on the Times business page they put the blog in decent prominence, but what makes me frustrated is, even in the best situations, the lack of consistency. In a medium that has mastered how to present information on the page so well, can't we find a way to keep the online content from looking like Miriam-Webster’s vomited into an Ethernet cable?
posted by Aaron Burkhalter at
3:25 PM
2 Comments:
Having worked for Cowles Publishing both as an independent contractor and a full-time employee, I'm curious: can you elaborate the reasons you respect the S-R "quite a bit"?
By
Anonymous, at 1:22 AM
I have the distinct feeling that I'm walking into a debate here, and I'm sure you've got something up your sleeve about the company... but....
For several reasons. Their internet website is one of the very best. Ken Sands is fantastic, and he runs a great site that does far more than regurgitate the print news onto the web. They really utilize the best technology.
I'm not as familiar with the practices of the company or the family that owns it, but I've always been impressed by how the newsroom seems to distance itself from the company's business, enough that they can report on things about the company, such as the parking garage accident. The garage was owned by the same family.
Whether you agree or not with their news decision making, I am impressed with the amount of thought, care and conversation that goes into their ethical decision making. The case about the mayor has had a lot of criticism, but they had the conversations, two years worth of them, debated all the ideas and really put an amazing amount of thought into their decision before they did it.
And finally, their transparancy. Their efforts on the transparant newsroom are awesome. They allow readers to blog and comment on the news on their own website. The editor keeps a blog in which he discusses their decision making, and if you dig around admits to mistakes that they made. The same thing happens on their big stories. Again with the mayor, I thought they did a good job explaining what they did and how they got the information they got. That was highly criticized, but no one pulled up a scandall. There were no secrets about what the newspaper did and how they did it, they explained that on page one....
so that said, what's Cowles like?
By
Aaron Burkhalter, at 8:03 AM
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