Comments on: The 50 most popular newspaper blogs

By: Tommy Stevenson

Tommy Stevenson — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:25:41 +0000

I have a couple of modest little blogs at The Tuscaloosa News, a New York Times-owned paper in Alabama. I am not allowed to have a site meter on it and don’t trust the hosts record of daily hits. This may be a stupid question, but how can I find out what my actual traffic is?

By: karentmurphy

karentmurphy — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:36:22 +0000

I didn’t see Dan Froomkin’s “White House Watch” at the Washingtonpost online listed here.

His stuff is consistently terrific!

By: elohn

elohn — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:48:10 +0000

These #s are highly suspect. I think there are blogs at sfgate.com that get way more traffic than Newsweek’s “On Faith” or the La Times’ book blog. Something is fishy here.

By: More about Ben

More about Ben — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:04:34 +0000

Giving out awards is a great way to get links from the self-important, isn’t it? In fact, I came here from a Ben Smith link and I’m sure more will follow. As for why he’d be #6, it’s certainly not for his accuracy: there’s an example of just one of his lies at my name’s link.

As for the NYT blogs, my comments are rarely approved, and sometimes they aren’t approved at the LAT’s blogs or they wait 24 hours before approving them in order to try to fool as many people as possible. Perhaps that’s good for a few points off.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:25:18 +0000

Tampa Jim, please show me where I ever claimed in my piece that The Big Picture is a New York Times blog. I don’t.

As for Technorati rankings, I explain my methodology, never once do I say that “these blogs have the most traffic.” I never claim that these are the blogs with the highest readerships.

You are, quite frankly, arguing with a straw man.

By: TampaJim

TampaJim — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:12:53 +0000

Two problems with your ranking.

First of all, your most popular blog is not a New York Times blog. It’s a Boston.com (Boston Globe) blog. Oddly, it’s also first on your list of blogs not from the top 5 news organizations. How could you not have noticed that?

Secondly, Technorati is not a good way of measuring the popularity of blogs. At best it could be said to measure the popularity of blogs WITHIN THE BLOGOSPHERE. That is not even close to the same thing as measuring the readership of a blog in the real world. The folks at Technorati themselves caution against interpreting their numbers the way you are.

Also, the papers you noted are all national publications, with the possible exception of the LA Times. Of course they get more links than reqional or smaller papers. That’s “the sky is blue” kind of analysis.

By: david

david — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:51:03 +0000

Not surprisingly, I read several of these blogs before their respective newspaper’s content. Thanks for the list.