The Boston Herald recently started a media blog, the Messenger, helmed by media reporters Jessica Heslam and Jesse Noyes, pop-culture guy Sean McCarthy and TV critic Mark Perigard. The Messenger is the city’s third blog devoted to all things media, joining Adam Reilly of the Phoenix and yours truly.
The Herald’s media coverage is pretty good, but the Messenger is off to a slow start, mainly in terms of linking: When other content is referenced at all, it tends to be Herald stories. The exception is McCarthy, who’s been blogging on his own for a while and who gets it.
Across town at Boston.com, there are plenty of blogs by Globe reporters, but none on the media per se. The Globe hasn’t had anyone covering the media full-time since Mark Jurkowitz left in mid-2005.
While you’re on the Globe bloggers page, scroll down to “Other Blogs in the Boston area,” and check out “Politics & the media.” You won’t find a single media blog listed there — including the Messenger, Reilly’s Media Log (which has been around in one form or another since 2002) or Media Nation (2005). Curious, no?
By the way: Jesse Noyes reports that Ed Piette, who runs WBZ-TV (Channel 4), has decided to go back to calling the station WBZ rather than CBS4. For the record, Media Nation never stopped referring to the station as WBZ. After all, those are the call letters.
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Anonymous
Not curious if you think you’re the only one with a valid opinion. Globies are a whole lot better at talking than they are at listening.
o-fish-l
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Congrats Dan!
Aaron Read
Jeez, and they’ve ALREADY taken a pot-shot at you Dan. Can’t a liberal get any respect in the Herald? 🙂
Dan Kennedy
Aaron: That’s pretty mild. But did you notice that Perigard linked to Media Nation as a whole rather than to the individual item? Kind of proves my point.
Anonymous
All it proves is the Perigard doesn’t know how to blog. What a jerk.
Dan Kennedy
A little harsh, don’t you think? Let’s judge him on his content, and hope his linking skills come along.
Anonymous
Since his content is consistently entertaining, I’d say the smackdown comes off as rather snotty – as if typing in an href makes you an expert.
Anonymous
the herald blog has already broken a ton of stories — the Bay Windows item today, the RKO news dept. firings last week, carson leaving CH. 7, depetro’s whinings … pretty darn good for a week-old blog. but of course it’s all about linking to other content, not developing your own, among the blogtocracy.
Dan Kennedy
Anon 6:03: There’s a rule in Boston media criticism: If you say anything even mildly critical of the Herald, you get slammed repeatedly. Gee, I wonder where you’re posting your comment from?I assume the Messenger Blog is going to be worthwhile. I’ve already added it to my newsreader. Jesse Noyes and Jessica Heslam are always breaking stories about the news media, which is my principal interest. I’m puzzled (well, maybe not) about the defensiveness over one minor quibble I had.You’re wrong about the WRKO story. Heslam broke the story on the Herald Web site, and then linked to it from the Messenger. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the Messenger did not break the story.The Bay Windows item today was excellent.Now, chill, OK?
chrisbrook
i must say i do miss jurkowitz’s criticism, even his short-lived media log over at the phx, too bad he hasn’t carried on with another blog down in DC
mike_b1
What difference does it make whether the Herald breaks a story, or one of its employed bloggers do?I guess I’m missing the distinction.In my book, stories are stories and scoops are scoops and the medium doesn’t matter. If more media companies were agnostic about the medium and focused instead on the content, they wouldn’t be spinning endlessly around, wondering which end is up.
Dan Kennedy
Mike: It doesn’t matter at all, except that Anon 6:03 made a specific assertion about the Messenger that wasn’t true.
mike_b1
Thank you for answering my rhetorical question.
Anonymous
Actually Dan, the items ab. WRKO by the Herald appeared online at essentially the exact same time — so your picayune “point” is that the Herald web editors put the item up on the Web site seconds before the blogger cut and past it onto the blog roll. You use this to prove … something or other? I think Mike_b has you here. i noticed you said the Herald blog is “off to a slow start.” your support your “point” by citing a lack of links. One might argue the herald blog was “off to a fast start” in that it has broken one story after another. but of course you’re dispassionate in all this. no need for you to chill.
mike_b1
Let me clarify: I wasn’t arguing with Dan. Instead, I was pondering why anon 6:03 wanted to classify the Herald blog as off to a fast start. To me, it doesn’t matter whether it was the Herald blog that broke a story or the paper’s Web site … or the paper itself. Indeed, the only people who care about who landed the scoop anymore are the media themselves. Once something hits, everyone has it, and it is highly unlikely the reader will ever know the true source (obscuring the source is something many media outlets have proved adept at). For anyone to argue, anonymously or not, about just who got a scoop misses the big picture altogether.
Anonymous
Nice that they’re trying, but the RSS feed crashes my Liferea reader if I try to subscribe.They noticed Dan’s review and even linked back to it – criticism works!Bill R