The Herald-Leader’s Free
Time section published a story today from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that
said blogging may have peaked, and MySpace and Facebook are seeing declining
numbers after a period of phenomenal growth.
Does that mean blogging is
doomed? Of course not. No more than newspapers, radio and network TV
are doomed, even though they’ve all seen better days. Each technological
innovation that comes along adds to humanity’s communications toolbox. And, ad tools go, blogs are terrific. They
allow quick, easy reporting of information, and give readers a way to talk back.
The Herald-Leader now has
several very successful blogs that cover arts, pop culture, photojournalism, sports
and Kentucky political news and commentary. Plus this blog, where we discuss what
Herald-Leader journalists do and why.
Our political news blog,
Polwatchers, was launched last October and already has surpassed 100,000
visitors. I’m not surprised by its
popularity. In Kentucky, politics ranks right up there with basketball and
horse racing as a great spectator sport. Polwatchers has given us a great format to quickly report an unlimited
amount of political news, point to what other news organizations and bloggers
are saying, and allow you to add your comments about it. And what makes
Polwatchers different from many of Kentucky’s partisan political blogs is that it follows the Herald-Leader’s
journalistic standards of accuracy, verification and sourcing.
Technology will continue to
evolve, giving us new tools with which to do good journalism. The Herald-Leader’s goal is to be Kentucky’s best news organization – not just newspaper organization. What’s important is the content,
not the container.
Tom Eblen
Managing Editor
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