Beat Writers vs. Blog Writers

Interesting post over at Dodger Thoughts (found via Off Wing Opinion). LA Times writer Bill Shaiken discusses the differences between newspaper coverage and blog coverage. Good stuff:

The strength of baseball blogging, then, is that it expands a fan’s options beyond moaning about the newspaper coverage or calling a talk show and waiting on hold to deliver a 30-second opinion. Write your own analysis. Use the blessing of unlimited space. I might get four paragraphs to discuss which free-agent pitchers the Dodgers or Angels are pursuing, with room for nothing beyond names and stats, certainly not for the analysis that the best blogs provide.

This of course begs the question - why doesn't the LA Times just give Shaiken and writers like him the space on their web site to do these expanded notes and stories that don't fit into the page constraints of the paper? The paper could make extra money off web advertising and increase brand loyalty. The writer could make a little more cake and expand his name recognition. Classic win-win.

Small point but one thing Shaiken does not address is the fact that many bloggers come from different areas of expertise (lawyers, technical wizards, etc.). Many times it is these diverse areas of experience and points of view that do the most to supplement the often narrow points of view that adds the most to discussion.