Thursday, July 03, 2008

Blogging about blogging...

  • Leonard Pitts shares his thoughts on blogging in response to a question I asked him yesterday during his chat:

    Q: ....On another note, have you ever thought of starting a blog? I did recently as it gives me an outlet to think out loud and share my thoughts in "real time." If you were to do a blog I think it would quickly become very popular!

    A: Thanks for the thought, but I doubt it'll happen. Most blogs strike me as bits of unpolished, undigested thought, something you dash off as opposed to something you really write. It's just not something I really want to do.

    I guess Leonard didn't see this memo written by Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell where he talks about, among other things, the political blog on the LA Times website (written by two veteran political reporters with decades of experience) receiving over 2 and half million page views in May and the fact that it's one of the top ranked blogs in the world. Pitts' remarks are even more proof that some in the newspaper industry are hopelessly stuck in the past and resistant to change.
    ...

  • Meanwhile in New York, the proliferation of food bloggers taking pictures of food is upsetting some restaurateurs so much that they've taken to hiding them away from other patrons and one restaurant has an outright ban on food photography.

    "Sir! Put the camera down and step away from the sushi!"

  • 2 comments:

    1. Andrew Malcolm, one of the writers of Top of the Ticket for the L.A. Times, is a pal of mine.

      He does indeed have a venerable history as a journalist, but I can tell you that he's having the time of his life writing TotT.

      And nothing he writes comes off as "unpolished, undigested thought."

      Sure, there are lots of crappy blogs out there. Millions of them.

      But blogs done well are a brilliant way to dive into a discourse with immediacy.

      It's sad that Mr. Pitts has such a generic and low opinion of them.

      ReplyDelete
    2. Have you seen the comments on his columns? If I were him I wouldn't blog either. He's probably doing the Q & A's at gun point.

      ReplyDelete

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