Newspapers Fail to Keep Up With Political Blogging

A new study of political blogs at newspapers indicates that the old print media has a way to go before it fully understands the complexities of the blogosphere. Anyone can start a blog, but it requires commitment -- occasionally bordering on insanity -- and a certain rhythm that traditional journalism lacks. Even The Baron doesn't profess to understand it all, but I have learned quite a bit from blogs I read regularly and from the experience of keeping up with a blog every day.

The study on newspapers' political blogs tells us that nearly one quarter of the blogs were not updated at all during the 5-day study. I don't know everything about blogs, but that's unacceptable. Of course, this ignores one of the major problems in journalism today. Newspapers are hellbent on staying relevant but they are also facing major budget issues. So instead of hiring bloggers or adding to their staffs, they are cutting staff and requiring all of their reporters to do more. The end result? Blogs that don't get updated and analysis that doesn't go very deep. That drives readers to want more and to often go to other sites (like the Huffington Post) to get it.