More blogs blooming

Here's a story from the Washingtonian about how many new blogs are springing up at the Washington Post. The story inlcudes some good inside info on how the Post manages its bloggers (pretty hands off. That's good.)

Is there money in blogging, part 2

Still wondering if you can make money from blogging? Well listen to this story.

A friend of mine who is a MSM blogger had TWO offers this week of work for pay as a result of their blog. The first was an offer to join a new venture by contributing one blog column a week to a new website that will have content in their specialty area. The deal was they were looking for a half-dozen bloggers to join up and offereing to split the site's advertising income 50-50. In other words, the site owners get half and the six bloggers divide the other half by six. They cautioned that this wouldn't pay much at first but they hope the money will flow more freely as the site takes off.

Then the blogger got an email from an established website, also their specialty area, offering $500 for a very short freelance story to appear on the site. The only reason this big time website owner would have ever thought to hire my friend was because the site owner was familiar with, and impressed by, their blog.

So maybe you can make money blogging?

CNN to advertise Anderson Cooper on blogs

Saw this on Romenesko. CNN is going to promote Anderson Cooper's new show by advertising on selected blogs including news, gossip and politics big guns Gawker, Defamer, Wonkette and Fishbowl.

Just thought I'd mention that apparently you can make money in blogging. Today it's the big guns. Maybe soon, it wil be widespread.

I've mentioned before that my colleague Mark Fisher has great wine blog at the Dayton Daily News. Well, we just learned last week that the local wine shop that bought ads on Mark's blog, Uncorked, in December just reupped for six months.

So even the "little guys" can get into the action.

The Scary side of blogging

Over at Poynter's daily blog by Jim Romenesko, the news industry's best source for news and gossip, they have the story of a memo from the editor of the Washington Times warning staffers not to blog anywhere without the paper's permission.

It's interesting that a lot of industry news is about the scary side of blogging -- such as the fear that a staffer might write something embarrassing to the news organization.

But there is little recognition of the potential power of blogging, to provide readers even more useful information than simply the news stories they see or hear. Or that MSM bloggers are finding news ways to connect with readers, or better yet people who aren't usually our readers. Or that perhaps blogging is the best avenue to attract back Internet savvy young news consumers who are so disconnected from our print products.

Just a thought.