Saturday, July 19, 2008

End of the Columnist?

This blog had received a fair amount of criticism for being "just reposts" and I suppose there is some justice in that complaint. I tend to select stories that seem worth passing on. My concept is the story choice is, at least in part, a comment on the news.



Whatever.



Actually news commentary used to be reserved to a very few. The big city paper and a few syndicated columnists (maybe 40 voices in all of Canada) were the alpha and omega of comment.



But today there are as many voices as there are blogs. What's more, even columnists like Warren Kinsella and Jonathan Kay blog more pieces than they ever publish in the papers. Many people have argued, often, ironically, in newspapers that this means the future of the columnist is not long term.



Certainly, as the Huffington Post shows, the most interesting and well reasoned columns are often not columns at all but rather blog posts.



The future is the blog.



So does that mean the columnist is doomed? I suspect not -- but the columnist will bear a new name -- blogger!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like your posts . . . it's your blog so do what you want with it.

James C Morton said...

Thanks!!!

Anonymous said...

I agree completely. It's your blog Mr. Morton. Do with it what you will. It's your blog, it's your views. If someone want to complain about it. Let them do it on their own blog!!!

Oxford County Liberals said...

Hi James:

It is indeed your own blog. However, if I was to have a concern, my concern would be more to do that you might be in violation of the Copyright act for reprinting the entire article, rather then just posting excerpts from it and then linking to it where the entire article could be read.

Anonymous said...

Bah, humbug I say!! Pay no heed to the naysayers. As a new mom, I personally don't have time to scan the internet for all the worthy stories, so it's kind of nice having a blogger who filters it for you!The people who complain that you copy & paste too much are free to STOP READING anytime they want, aren't they?