Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Huh?... Miami Herald plans to launch blog aggregator page, but most of the blogs picked by the Herald have small audiences

Carlos Miller reports The Miami Herald is launching a blog aggregator page.

In another sign that the mainstream media is beginning to look at the blogosphere as a legitimate source of content, The Miami Herald not only plans to unveil a page that will aggregate content from more than 200 blogs throughout South Florida.

It invited a handful of bloggers to its newsroom Monday evening to announce the new feature.

The new page will officially launch next Monday, but check it out here.

Besides myself, other bloggers that attended the meeting at 1 Herald Plaza were Mango and Lime, Bark Bark Woof Woof, 305 Misadventures, Brickell Life, Sex and the Beach and Dayngrous Discourse.

Instant News Editor Shelley Acoca and Multimedia Editor Rick Hirsch explained that it took more than a year to get this page launched. The page will also include blogs from other corporate media companies, including the New Times and the South Florida Sun Sentinel.


I like the idea, but the test will be if the page attracts eyeballs -- and judging by the technorati authority of the chosen blogs, the Herald won't be bringing much of a new audience with the blog aggregator page.

Most of these blogs have small audiences. Here's the technorati info of the blogs named by Carlos Miller:

  • Mango and Lime: technorati just 15
  • Photography is not a crime: technorati 267
  • 305: misadventures: technorati just 10
  • Brickell Life: no technorati rating
  • Sex and the Beach (note - this is not a typo): technorati just 20
  • Bark Bark Woof Woof: technorati just 53
  • Dayngrous Discourse: technorati just 25
  • Random Pixels technorati just 17
The only blog on the list with a substantial audience is Carlos Miller's Photography is not a crime blog.

Where is Babalu Blog?? Babalu is a major South Florida blog with a large, influential audience -- technorati authority is 234. (It may be that Babalu isn't interested in being on the Herald's aggregator page, but knowing whether Babalu was invited would tell me a lot about the Herald's business sense.)

(FYI, my blog has a technorati authority of 75.)

If the Herald wants to increase readership, they should partner with blogs that actually have an audience.
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Hearald wants to start small, but not let anyone be more popular than they are, or in this case, aren’t. It will fail.

Anonymous said...

So much much is the Herald paying these bloggers for their content?

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many are Cuban Communist Party Blogs.

enhager said...

The eyeballs are free. As well as the hard work and information posted by these bloggers. They are providing content, usually the kind the newspaper hasn't provided in a long time.
This will definitely pay dividends over the long haul. just like it has for huffpo.

McClatchy Watch said...

enhager -- HuffPo has an audience. Other than the Photography is Not a Crime blog, none of the blogs listed in the article have an audience.

So I'm at a loss to understand how these blogs with small audiences will "pay dividends" for the Herald.

Anonymous said...

It is not only going to get traffic from the blogs you mentioned, but from people wanting to keep up with the other blogs, which are more than 200 right now.

It will do what the south florida daily blog does but better because it won't censor blogs for political reasons.

South Florida Daily Blog

Anonymous said...

It is true. Rick of the South Florida Daily Blog controls which blogs get readers by censoring the ones he doesn't like.
South Florida Daily Blog

Anonymous said...

so what if some niche blogs have smaller click counts? everyone isn't interested in hai lai, or Italian food, or whatever.
everyone wasn't interested in the whole newspaper either - bridge col., biz pages, auto writer. but they gave the heft and shades of gray and texture of any publication.
I think it's great,
I hope they get more blogs. maybe some by teens?

PJ-Comix said...

Your note that the Babalu Blog seems to have been excluded probably had an effect on the Herald. They have now included it in their Blog aggregator.

McClatchy Watch said...

PJ-Comix - wow, glad to hear it.

Anonymous said...

Please keep in mind that these blogs, including my own, may not have the technorati ratings that yours may have, or that Babalu may have, but that doesn't mean that we have absolutely no readership. For example, the writer behind Sex and the Beach maintains several blogs, is a full-time writer and is known in the South Florida blogging community.

The Herald's blog site includes all of the local blogs, INCLUDING Babalu, which was included before the meeting. As another reader indicated, every paper is divided up into different categories, and if you look, the blogs included came from different niches.

The meeting had nothing to do with content management, but overlooking the actual construction and usability of the site. NOT to compare who has the biggest "Technorati" rating.

More than 200 local blogs are included on this site, and whatever they post will be included, regardless of what the topic. I personally believe that this is going to be a good tool to drive traffic, as long as the Herald makes it easily accessible. Because let's be honest, with all the cuts the newspapers are taking, reporting is becoming more and more sparse as the days go on.