April 3, 2002

Something curious this way blogs

A traditional-media editorial writer says bloggers are playing an increasingly important role and newspapers would be wise to pay attention - and to get involved in blogging.

Says Geitner Simmons, an editorial writer with the Omaha World-Herald:

I have begun to notice something curious that happens most Saturday nights on the Internet. Quite soon after The New York Times and Washington Post place the articles and opinion columns for their Sunday editions online, people start posting online critiques of the material. Over the next 24 hours or so, the online responses sometimes coalesce into a useful counterpoint and supplement to the original reporting or commentary."

Simmons's article appears in the Spring 2002 edition of Masthead,the quarterly journal of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, which isn't available online at its own site or at NCEW.org, but is available via the IntellisearchNow.com database.