NPR's guide to blogging: act like Andrew Sullivan, Ben Smith, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 03:44 PM
NPR is putting some money behind me and a few other bloggers around the country, trying to bolster the on-line, digital reporting at public radio stations.
Lots of references to niche reporting, local stories with national trends, 21st century journalism, social media, all that stuff.
To that end, we got a tutorial yesterday at NPR's headquarters on, basically, how to blog. My favorite part was the description of "the Sully lede" : "proper noun, verb, block quote." It's a style often used by Andrew Sullivan.
(For example, my contribution to the genre: "Jimmy Vielkind pulls back the curtain on Andrew Cuomo’s daily activities, and discovers something is missing.")
The slideshow says the Sully lede allows you to aggregate information quickly, for your readers. I'd add to this point that it also helps bloggers foster a sense that they're involved in an on-going conversation with readers. And, if you have a successful web site, that's true.
Ta-Nehisi Coates comes in for some flattery, as does Ben Smith. Coates for fostering a community within the comments section; Smith for employing the Sully lede and his all-round prolificness. (Excellence in reporting and news judgement for all three goes without saying.)
Anyway, if this site feels like it's had some growing pains, just know, it's being worked on.
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Comments [10]
Hey, just saw you wrote that.
Yeah, on my feed reader, I get: New York Times (NY Region and City Room), Albany Project (to get that perspective), and Stateline.org's New York updates (aggregates key stories on NYS politics, w/ a lot from Times Union).
I skim those for stories of interest.
I also find myself ending up at DN Daily Politics, Capital Tonight, and Politicker NY, but reading from a distance, it's too repetitive to read those and Empire. I definitely think the morning and evening roundup is useful.
yo jesse,
first: thank you!
i wasn't sure if anyone read my tiny manifesto (ahem, on the upper right-hand part of this site, ahem).
secondly: since yo're reading from afar, i'm curious: what else are you reading to stay informed about politics here. and do you find those morning and evening link roundups helpful?
Ha
You could always try the Greg Mankiw approach (http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/). NO COMMENTS. What I say, IS economics.
I wanted to chime in on this...a little late.
I am from New York, but currently at school in another state, and I am an avid reader of this blog. For me, it's the best way to keep up with all the NY politics that the Times doesn't cover, while away.
I'm glad that you are looking at ways of improving the blog, but I do think that it is great as it is, and that you shouldn't try too hard to adopt other writers' styles when you have one of your own.
I don't read Andrew Sullivan, Ben Smith, or Ta-Nehisi Coates, and there's a reason for that. There are so many good blogs on the Internet, that I don't need another one simply connecting me to a greater network of information—it's overwhelming.
So, I would encourage you to keep your voice strong: don't remove it for the sake of the Sully lead. I think your blog is best when it is "a place where we can talk about politics the way reporters talk about it."
Just my thoughts...
The owner of the Gingerbread House was very hospitable to her visitors too. Go here for a taste of the uncut:
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/
Okay, i'll take the bait.
Why oppose the sully lede? Or is it opposition to aggregation in general?
I'll (try to) keep my unmentionables from bunching up. But, from what I've read, Coates seems fairly hospitable to a wide array of opinions.
Tell me more about The Group News Blog (so much to learn about the interwebs!)
And anybody else cultivating their comments section particularly well?
"...fostering a community within the comments section." - Indeed.
What Mr. Coates does is little more than a watered down version of what Steve Gilliard (R.I.P.) is famed for doing (in blog and comments section) while he was alive and heading The Group News Blog. Plus The Big Fella didn't get his unmentionables in a bunch whenever someone didn't agree with him or criticized the sweetness of his Kool-Aid offering of the day, as with TNC.
Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed the way this presentation highlighted milestones in Ta Nehisi Coates' blogging journey. His first post is classic.
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