There are many legit, well known journalists that write blogs for their publications. Many have even switched to the blog full time. In those cases, the term \”blog\” really just refers to the style in which the article is posted and delivered.

In most cases, it\’s still the same basic kind of article you would have read if the person was still a beat writer. However, now it is published in the \”blog\” format.

The only real difference you tend to see is a little bit of the journalistic \”formality\” removed. Same integrity, just more casual in voice.

On the other hand, I don\’t think you\’d want to open your locker room to any schmuck that claims to be a blogger. That would be insane.

However, I think it would serve your team brand well to actually recruit NBA bloggers to come to games and be treated like main stream press.

As someone with close ties to the NY Yankees media, I know this for a fact.

If you go out and find the Mav\’s biggest blogger fans, and allow them to come work from the press box say…once a week, it can only do wonders for the team.

Sports blogs have a huge influence over sports fans. If you get on their good side, it helps. You\’ll actually see an increase in ticket sales and non-game event attendance.

Plus, you can make it a big deal in the mainstream press. If you were to reserve 4 or 5 press box seats exclusively for non-corporate bloggers, not only would they write good things about the team, the main stream press would have a field day with that story.

As for main stream media blogs, you can\’t discount their popularity. They get read. The NY Times Cityroom Blog gets a ton of traffic, and there are countless others.

Hey, if Dan wanted to do a blog, you\’d let him…admit it.

So I don\’t think there\’s anything wrong with newspapers and other media properties having blogs, per se. They just need to get better at identifying talent. Easier said than done, but not impossible. Writing is their stock in trade, after all. This is why Gawker is so good – Nick Denton has a great eye for talent and topics that will attract an audience.

News at 11: \”Blogger says blogs add no value to a brand!\”

The irony of this post, denigrating blogs as something \”any literate human being with Internet access can create in under 5 minutes\” that are unsuitable for creating a brand differentiation, coming from a clearly branded \”Mark Cuban\” \”Blog Maverick\” blog is just rich.

Yes, I blog. Way long time ago, I studied journalism, and I decided that I never wanted to work that hard for so little pay. With blogs, I can publish opinion pieces (\”editorials\” for you old fashioned types) on my own schedule, without deadlines or some corporate nanny saying \”Oh, you can\’t publish *that*, they advertise with us!\”

Are blogs reporting? Some are – some bloggers focus on contemporaneous reporting of events local to them
Are blogs aggregators? Some are – many bloggers collect factoids and links, then present them as \”compare and contrast\” pieces.
Are blogs editorials? Many are – individuals (such as myself) will analyse and opine about current events, politics, religion and news.

A newspaper connected blog can allow a reporter (who should just gather and report facts) to expand into the arena of opinion and editorial. In traditional media, there is (well, was before Fox News) a strong division between hard news and editorializing. In blogs, that line is non-existent – look at the right wing blogs, which are usually long on rhetoric and thin on hard facts.

But hey, I shouldn\’t have to tell you this stuff – you\’re a \”literate human being\”, right?

Blogs are a medium, just like television, print, magazine, bulletin board.

You\’re backpedaling, Mark, and it\’s embarassing. Just admit that you shouldn\’t have made a blanket ban on blogging simply because most bloggers today are amateurs. There\’s nothing wrong with journalists using the weblog format.

I\’m sure newspapers laughed at the idea of television news just like television laughed at the internet.

You sound so behind the times. You just don\’t get it, like those guys didn\’t get Broadcast.com when they asked you how many CD players you had.

Take for example this http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2008/03/12/this-one-is-worth-a-thousand-words/

If the writer were using the high journalistic standards you might expect from Reuters, he wouldn\’t be able to say things like \”Such a potent image leaves very little room for any doubt. In such circumstances do we need to know the details of the dispute to have any doubts that what we are witnessing is wrong?\”

My theory is these news blogs give journalists the forum to say what they think about a news piece without needing to be objective, while still functioning under the banner of a news organization.

The point of blogging is to start/contribute too a conversation. I would recommend that most/if not all newspapers need to find a good way to join in a whole series of conversations online.