Houston daily adds yet another blog
For a daily newspaper that once freaked out over the whole blog thing, the Houston Chronicle certainly has done a turnabout in the last year. The paper has added what appears to be its 20th blog, this one devoted to watching TV.
Here's their description:
Welcome to Tubular, a new blog devoted to watching television. We've gathered a handful of TV junkies and asked them to "adopt" their favorite show or shows. They'll offer recaps and commentary, and we'd like you to do the same via comments. For those wondering why we didn't launch this blog at the beginning of the fall TV season, the answer is simple: a not-so-lovely visitor named Rita. Now that we've cleared that up, please enjoy the shows.
-- Pamela Mitchell, Online Entertainment Editor
I probably won't be reading this one as my TV watching these days consists almost entirely of news, sports, movies and HBO original series episodes, but I'm sure it'll find an audience, and I'll probably check in on it once in a while just to see what Chron TV Writer Mike McDaniel has to say.
It's easy to see why the Chron has embraced the blog. Newsprint costs are going up. Newspaper audiences are shrinking. Gotta try something new.
Even better, these "citizen journalists" will write for FREE!
Morale at the Chron, we're told, is at an all-time low. Editor Jeff Cohen can't make the paper a world-class product, like he promised he would, because he's getting his marching orders (in the form of budget constraints) from the Hearst bigwigs in New York. Their new hires, by and large, are young and rather inexperienced, so they'll work cheap. One of their more veteran reporters recently left to go work for Stars and Stripes. Who in their right mind would want to leave a "major metro daily" to work for Stars and Stripes? Someone who works at The Houston Chronicle.
[chron.com/tubular]
Posts
3 comments:
For a daily newspaper that once freaked out over the whole blog thing
Hahahaha!
However, they are missing some FINE local talent... =)
I started reading newspapers as soon as I could read. In fact I was "reading" the Sunday funnies even before I could read. That was a long time ago, nearly 60 years. We always had two newspapers at our house: the Dallas Morning News in the morning and the Mexia Daily News in the afternoon. When I went to college, I subscribed to the DMN and had it delivered daily to my dorm door. I subscribed, in fact, until we moved to Alvin in 1983, when I immediately subscribed to both Houston papers. Now only the Chron is left, and it's not really very good. While I like blogs and blogging, it's kind of sad to me to see the decline of print newspapers. (Another sure sign I'm getting old.)
I lay a lot of that turnaround at Evil Dwight (TM)'s feet. Dwight has really turned the online version around, especially given what he has to work with.
Cohen and Hearst on the other hand are idiots that are killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Just my view from the proverbial porch....
Post a Comment