In the ongoing debate about where the line should be drawn between bloggers and journalists, the most compelling argument to date has been made with the overhaul of the New York Times’ (NYT) technology-focused Blogrunner site. A few months ago, Blogrunner was a hot topic in the news as Times editors and reporters made the shift from producing content to using Internet-generated content. Now the final shoe in that process has dropped, with Blogrunner’s technology section running numerous blog posts from all over the web, cherry-picked by Times editors.
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Of course, uber-aggregator sites are not a brand-new idea, just look at Slashdot or Techmeme. But the newly revamped Blogrunner is an aggressive endorsement of and big push into the blogosphere from an old-school media source —The Gray Lady herself. The degree to which Blogrunner is now tapping into the blogosphere points to new levels of acceptance and respect for blog content in the world of journalism.
A quick glance at Blogrunner’s recent cherry pickings makes clear that the editors are shooting for timeliness and credibility, and that they are looking to old-school sources as well as new media for content. A recent home page offered a post from Marc Andreessen’s blog on Google’s (GOOG) launch of OpenSocial, a post from TechCrunch on expected announcements from Facebook, and a post about Google’s phone plans from the Wall Street Journal (isn’t that that quirky little blog put out by the Birkenstock-wearing guy?).
While Blogrunner is willing to add old-school media sources to its aggregation mix, it also appears to be agnostic about some of the sketchier sources of web content it’s bringing to the party, seating gossip-mongers next to staid, respected sources such as the WSJ. Several of the posts and areas on the site link to online communities and forums and the like; Wikipedia entries can’t be far off.
On this last note, while it looks like Blogrunner is still experimenting with its content mix, while visiting the site I kept wondering: When it comes to content, what matters more, quantity or quality?
What do you see ahead for this mix of old-school journalism and blogs?
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