Have you noticed that about the only newspaper around these days that isn't incorporating blogs into its web presence is Wendy McCaw's News-Press?
Take the L.A. Times, for instance; it now hosts something like 40 different blogs on its website.
The latest addition to the Times' blog parade is Patrick Goldstein, whose print column, "The Big Picture," has heretofore appeared each Tuesday in the paper.
Now Goldstein, who covers Hollywood and the film industry, will be blogging two or three times a week, in addition to continuing with his print column.
As Goldstein pointed out when he announced his foray into the blogosphere, the best blogs consist of lively writing coupled with informed analysis. Why should the public have to wait for the next day's paper in order to read work with those two qualities?
And as he went on to point out, with newspaper circulation dropping and profits down, those who work for newspapers (or who publish them) can moan and groan, or they can try something new.
While McCaw has said on more than one occasion that traditional journalism is passé, she has yet to demonstrate a willingness to embrace what will be a major part of the "new" journalism: blogs.
Of course, adding blogs to the News-Press fold would mean she would be giving up some degree of control over what appears on "her paper's" website.
Apparently, loss of the ability to censor divergent points of view is one thing this near billionaire can't afford to lose.
As you may have gathered from the photo I posted yesterday afternoon, I spent Thursday at Dodger Stadium watching the Dodgers lose to the Chicago White Sox.
Vin Scully, the Dodgers announcer is around 80 and has been calling Dodger games for more than 50 years. From what I could see yesterday he hasn't lost his enthusiasm for the game. During the seventh inning stretch I looked up into the press box and saw Scully standing up, dressed in his shirtsleeves and a necktie and singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" along with the rest of the crowd.
