Anchor Blogs Continue to Increase
Posted on August 24, 2005
More anchors are getting blogs as the popularity of weblogs continues to grow. A New York Times article reports on two anchor blogs: one by NBC news anchor Brian Williams at MSNBC.com and one by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren at FoxNews.com. MSNBC.com, which is home to Brian Williams blog is no stranger to blogs -- they already have sixteen blogs.
"There is no better way to say this than to whip out a cliche from the old cliche bag or drawer," Mr. Williams said in an interview. "We are trying to lift the veil. We're trying to expose ourselves as a collection of humans grappling with how to spend our precious 22 minutes each night."The Times article said that Brian Williams' blog has received inbound links from blogs like TVnewser.com, which may help to bring new viewers to the show. NBC and Fox are not the only networks planning blogs. CBS News announced in July that it is planning a "Public Eye" blog as well as digital news network. CNBC has a blog called Squawkblog which launched a few months ago. And print does not want to be left behind either. Many newspapers now have at least one blog and some tech savvy papers have a growing blog network -- like the St. Petersburg Times blog network we discussed recently."I said to my wife," he added, " 'I don't have a therapist. I have my blog.' "
Mr. Williams and his colleagues (who sometimes post their own entries) have been motivated to show a little leg at least in part because of a financial reality of the news business: though the three broadcast newscasts still draw an average of more than 20 million viewers a night, they have been losing hundreds of thousands of viewers each year. As it has for other businesses, the Web offers a fresh marketing opportunity - in this case, a chance to lure younger people who might be thirsting for a little inside baseball.