New York Times : We’re blogospheric & launching series of blogs

Today’s New York Times staff memo on blogging says a series of blogs are in the works. Jonathan Landman, Deputy Managing Editor, is pretty pretty bullish on blogs in his announcement to the Times staff.

We’re blogospheric.

Yesterday we launched a genuine, authentic, by-the-book New York Times blog. It’s Carpetbagger, by David Carr. It’s part of a new movie-awards-season web site called Red Carpet, which includes a bunch of things you won’t see in the newspaper, like weekly columns by Joyce Wadler and Caryn James. You’ll see a refer on today’s front page, which I boldly, if ignorantly, declare to be our first-ever page-1 refer to a web-only feature. At the very least, it’s our first-ever page 1 refer to a blog.

Within a few days, we’ll put up a real estate blog by Damon Darlin and others. More blogs are in the works. Even more are at the idea stage. We’ve come late to blogging, obviously, though we’ve put toes in the water on a number of occasions, as when our movie critics sent running commentary from last year’s Cannes film festival.

But our new blogs are more than running commentary. Look at Carr’s. It’s full of links to film publications and blogs and web sites. It encourages responses from readers and hopes to start a lively conversation. Nothing is more important to the future of our web ambitions than to engage our sophisticated readers. Blogs are one way to do it.

It’s worth spending a little time thinking about blogs, and about ourselves. Blogs make some newspaper people nuts; they’re partisan, the thinking goes, and unfair and mean-spirited and sloppy about facts. Newspapers make some bloggers nuts; they think we’re dull and slow and pompous and jealous guardians of unearned ‘authority.’

I like that. Spread the word guys – we’re blogosheric at LexBlog.

Source of post: CyberJournalist.net