Four people in the last four days have asked me about my blog. Perhaps it’s a sign.

Yes, I’m still here. Yes, I still plan to write and share but the last 4 weeks have been the most painful days of my life and blogging hasn’t been at the top of my list of things to do.

Several days after my last post, I contracted a particularly nasty case of shingles, leaving me in severe pain and unable to walk for several days.

Thanks goodness for antivirals like acyclovir.

The healing process has been even more difficult as I’ve suffered intense bouts of muscle pain and severe allodynia to the degree that anything touching me, including clothes, water, or even a light breeze from a fan felt like razors cutting my flesh from the inside out. My only peace has come in the form of ice, capsaicin cream, and a powerful combination of Pregabalin and Oxycodone.

I’ll spare you the remaining details (and disgusting photos) but will say that shingles aren’t something to fuck around with.

There is a vaccine available for it and if you’re over 60 (or have a compromised immune system like me), talk to your doctor about getting vaccinated because you don’t want to go through what I’ve been though.

[Thank you Anitra…for finding a a deep well of strength within you to keep the family strong and me in as much comfort as possible]

So yeah. That’s why I haven’t written for the last month. All the while though, the garden has continued to flourish.

There are 0 comments on this article.

A joint study from Ball State University and the University of Nevada, Reno says that newsrooms aren’t making commitments to their blogs and their efforts may be a waste of time.

The study found that “most newspaper staff-produced blogs contained a small number of postings, failed to create much interaction between the blogger and the audience and attracted few audience comments.”

Ball State journalism professor Lori Demo goes on to suggest that a reporter’s time may be better spent elsewhere. In light of the lack of audience participation, “Newspapers might consider spending staff time monitoring blogs as sources of news rather than trying to re-create the blogosphere on their Web sites.”

I don’t fully agree with the study’s findings, although it did focus primarily on political blogs.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve had a hand in setting up 100s of blogs for Media General’s properties throughout the southeast.

While I’m not at liberty to share our actual traffic stats, I can say that some have been very successful in terms of audience loyalty, traffic, comments and ultimately, brand equity.

Two better examples include Otterblog, written by Ken Otterbourg, the Managing Editor at the Winston-Salem Journal) and Barticles, written by Bart Hinkle, Deputy Editor of the Editorial Page at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Another, now defunct blog, was Melissa Ruggieri’s IdolChatter, which covered American Idol. Talk about traffic spikes!

Of course, not all of the blogs have been successful. Who can forget the kind words that the Richmond bloggers so eloquently bestowed on the Times-Dispatch’s “Community blogs” when they launched them:

• http://richmond.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://henrico.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://chesterfield.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://hanover.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://goochland.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://powhatan.mytimesdispatch.com/
• http://tricities.mytimesdispatch.com/

[I wish those would just go away. Now. Forever.]

John criticized them back in Feb. ‘07 with these words:

As for the paper’s new community weblogs, I fall back to my go-to move—with a few exceptions, there is no voice there. A bunch of regurgitated press releases does not a weblog make. I have a mild impulse to remind myself to give them a chance to get established, but you know what—a news organization that has put a lot of thought and energy into launching a new product should get it right the first time. And the TD doesn’t get it right. Not by a long shot.

In fairness though, we’re not the only ones with bad blogs. Other local media outlets have them too:

richmond.com’s RBlog - No offense meant to Jon and the rest of the team at richmond.com but how you guys were voted as having Richmond’s best blog in Richmond Magazine’s annual “Best & Worst” issue two years in a row, I’ll never understand.

WTVR’s Weather Blog -  Ah, good ol’ WorldNow. If there’s no RSS feed and no way to comment, is it still a blog?

NBC12’s Weather Blog - Is it a blog? Or a forum? Or just the forecast? I can’t tell but if they ever decide to connect with the audience on there, they’ve got a lot of potential.

WRIC - Yeah, no blogs here but they do link to others and that’s a good start.

So what makes the good ones good? I’d say the top two factors are commitment and voice. Add to that a dash of humility, some transparency, and a little personalization and you’ve got something going.

But even with a winning formula in hand, does that mean that media outlets should?

A recent report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism suggests that blogs reach and attract much smaller audiences than expected. Despite their proliferation, blogs are not used by most Americans as news sources.

What’s more, a Zogby Poll released at the end of last year showed that blogs were at the bottom of the list as a source of important news for most people. Interestingly enough though, the results of the same poll showed that “55% believe blogging will be an important aspect of journalism in the future. An overwhelming number (74%) saw amateur citizen reporters, as opposed to established media outlets, playing a key role.”

Should media outlets ditch the blogs and get back to solid reporting and re-establish their space in the media ecosystem?

Your thoughts?

Related: The Lost Art of Reporting

[photo credit: Sister72]

There is 1 comment on this article.

I wish more of my meetings were like this.

FIRST!

[What meetings would be like if everyone acted like it was a blog post with comments. NSFW and headphones on if the kiddies are around.]

There is 1 comment on this article.