Today's topic: Sports staff blogging
One of the areas in which the The Observer-Dispatch has sought to improve and enhance its online content - and has been somewhat successful in doing so - is in its sports blogs.
The OD sports staff is made up of seven people (four reporters and three editors/copy editors). Currently, four of those staffers have their own blogs. Two of them - the main high school sports writers - focus their blogs on - you guessed it - high school sports. Another - the Syracuse University sports beat writer - focuses his blog on college sports (while also occasionally venturing into the professional sports world occasionally). The last - a copy editor - blogs on any and all sports topics (though mainly professional).
Up until late August, these blogs were rarely posted to, and they had next to no audience. However - prepare for some shameless self-promotion - after I ran a summer-long American Legion baseball blog off of the site that gained a loyal following, the paper's editors decided to beef up the entire staff's dedication to blogging.
Now, the sports staffers with blogs usually post at least three times a week (compared to MAYBE once a month before). While their blogging skills are still a bit archaic (there is no linking, no photos, no videos, no audio, etc.), the blogs have definitely been a welcome addition to the paper's sports coverage.
The paper's newfound dedication to these blogs can be seen below. The site highlights the blogs both in the middle of the homepage, and with a banner atop the sports page as well:
1 comment:
Way to go! Hope you keep pushing them to include some multimedia and linking.
Post a Comment