Pressthink’s Blue Plate Special launched yesterday with a list headlined “The Best Blogging Newspapers in the U.S.*” with a quick explanation (signaled by the asterisk) that it’s not really the best blogging newspapers in the United States. Instead, Jay Rosen’s students at New York University surveyed the 100 largest-circulation daily newspapers in the United States to see what they’re doing.
The list is useful, but much of the real innovation is happening outside that list of 100 big newspapers.
I’m also reminded of a Jon Stewart report on blog coverage by big media, in which he gushed about how they’re using the revolutionary technology of the Internet to give voice to the … already voiced. Much of what shows up on the list is blogging from the staff to the audience, and some of the sites have little or no activity in response. Sometimes absence of signal is a signal.
