Chicago Tribune Adds Blogs Covering Politics and Sports

Posted on January 11, 2006

The Chicago Tribune continues to launch blogs. There are five on the right side of the opinion page but this doesn't include all of the Tribune blogs. Recently launched blogs include a political blog called The Swamp and a sports blog called Wake Up, Stupid. The sports blog is written by Chicago Tribune sports columnist Rick Morrissey. In his first post Morrissey tells how much extra the Tribune isn't paying him to write the blog.

God knows you get enough of me four times a week in the newspaper, but this is a chance for me to get a few more things off my chest and for you to do with them what you will. It doesn't cost you a dime and I don't get paid for it -- isn't this a great world!

Morrissey isn't alone. Earlier this year we predicted that thousands of journalists will be given blogs to write this year -- a rather obvious prediction given the way things were going in the 4th quarter of 2005. Hopefully, if their blogs build a growing readership they will eventually be able to obtain a salary boost to go with it. In his first post, Rick Morrissey also explains the difference between blogging and writing a column.

My only trepidation is that, unlike writing a column, blogging doesn't always take a whole lot of deep thought. Its beauty is in its immediacy. I can spend hours and hours formulating an opinion for the newspaper that is so wrong it should be outlawed in 37 states, but at least I spent some time with it. So this blog comes with a warning: I just might change my mind at times.

"Wake Up, Stupid" primarily is a sports discussion, but there will be times when I'll branch out into other topics. As much as we want sports to be an escape, it has this nasty habit of pulling us back into the real world.