The editors are blogging – and they have opinions. Should they?

Posted on by Ryan Sholin

The Santa Cruz Sentinel is running a pair of blogs.

(Full disclosure: I live in Santa Cruz, and rarely purchase a print edition of any of the three papers I can easily find at the corner store.)

One of the blogs is an “Editors’ Notebook” written by Editor Tom Honig and Managing Editor Don Miller. It’s not about what goes on inside the paper, unless they’re teasing something coming up in the print edition (hint: if we’re reading the blog, we’re probably not buying the print edition).

The editors comment on news stories from just about anywhere, with their politics clearly coming through at moments. As they should, I suppose, but after reading editor blogs that are a bit more about getting inside the newspaper (like the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s Daily Briefing), I was expecting something more.

Is there any problem with editors voicing their opinions about the community in blog posts? Would the answer be different if it were the Sports editor or the A & E editor?

Published by Ryan Sholin

2 thoughts on “The editors are blogging – and they have opinions. Should they?”

  1. Hi:
    I just came across this, and appreciate your comments. As the writer of the Editors’ Notebook, I want to be open about what Don Miller and I are doing. I’m not sure I really know where this is all going to go.

    I’m interested in what you said about getting a look inside the operation of the daily newspaper. You’re right — I haven’t done that yet, but I’m not opposed to it. I really wonder how many people care.

    Since I’m the main opinion writer of the newspaper, I figure it wouldn’t be honest to refrain from opinion. I’m actually hoping that I get enough responses to try to get opposing views in the actual paper. I also hope to get stuff in that doesn’t make it into the paper — behind the scenes stuff like who gets mad at me and who says something funny. Unfortunately, much of what I do has to do with personnel here at the paper, and believe me, there’s nothing interesting about that.

    Anyway, I’d love to hear any more ideas. This is an interesting blog; I’ll bookmark it.

    Best,

    Tom Honig

    Like

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