In Dec. 2005, when the Harvard Crimson first began publishing its Sports Blog, a rash of blogs linked to Ivy League newspapers emerged as we all attempted to keep up with the Joneses. At the time, the DP quickly followed with the sports-oriented Buzz and finally, in the fall of 2006, the culmination of all Ivy blogging efforts: the Spin.
(What, you think it’s a conflict of interest to have the opinion blog editor post about the blogs? Pssh.)
This transition from newspaper to media organization has proved daunting in some cases. The Columbia Spectator’s first effort, SpecBlogs, died and then experienced an impressive resurrection ten months after its first conception. Now their version of Inside the Newsroom, The Editors Notes, gives a voice to the Spec Managing Board, while undergrads and grad students alike express themselves on the opinionated Commentariat.
With the Spin, we’ve evolved over the years, too.
Sometime between that first historic post, which optimistically pleaded that “the conversation … never end,” to more recent posts, just-as-optimistically begging for reader guest blogs, we’ve also transitioned from “online columnists” to real bloggers who post much shorter reaction pieces and curse like sailors.
Interestingly enough, we performed an experiment this semester, attempting something never done before on an official Ivy paper blog (er, probably. I don’t think it has, anyway. Most likely, at least.): We invited an alum and a University employee to come join the fun as staff writers. Although some people expressed skepticism on the subject, overall, we thought the samples were too good to turn down.
Two-plus months later, someone probably owes me money.
Whether it’s observations about student life from someone no longer immersed in it or recommendations about recruiting from the other side of the desk, Lauren and Dan consistently deliver informal perspectives that don’t always have a place in the DP proper.
Many college papers find themselves criticized for an excess of undergraduate-focused content. At a paper run by undergraduate editors, this might be somewhat unavoidable. But the infinite space and versatility of the online medium provide an outlet for the entire community, and this increased accessibility leads to positive feedback and even more demand for different points of view.
In other words: Woo, blogs, and woo, Internet. Maybe some people are mourning the death of the newspaper. But while the paper certainly provides a necessary a foundation of news and reporting, the Internet can allow for much-needed branching out, and the Spin is a great example of that.
It’s all in the balance.
An RSS feed of Inside the Newsroom is available
April 4th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
The Crimson’s Sports Blog launched in February, 2007. The Buzz launched on January 8, 2006 — over a year earlier. http://www.thecrimson.com/blog_summary.aspx?blogID=43&page=10&Month=0&Year=0&tagID=0
There was a predecessor blog to Sports Blog that predated The Buzz by about a month, but it quickly folded. It updated maybe six times in that month.
As a result, The Buzz is the oldest sports blog in the Ivy League (and still the only[?] one that posts at least daily — I haven’t checked lately). I believe that the Spec was next, a couple months later. The Buzz may be the oldest Ivy blog period (not just sports), and may be the nation’s oldest collegiate sports blog. (Too much to research, but both are possible, and at the least, are close).
April 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
God, do I love Marv Dash.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
So Jonathan Tannenwald, who according to many accounts wrote more articles than anyone ever for the DP, gets to say he wrote the first (2) collegiate sports blog post(s) of all time? Here it is.
Can he get any cooler? What more does he have to do to become as Philadelphia as a Butterscotch Krimpet? I defy you to defy this leading query and have the nay-sayers abide.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
The only shame in the timing of the Buzz was that there was no overlap with the most glorious time in DP history, the era of Le Burgeoner. Just think, we the masses could have been privy to such leading queries as “Are the Hawks for real.” Instead we had to settle for crap on the level of “Why the hell is nothing open in Kentucky” and “Why won’t Mrs. Bilsky say hello to me?” Real shame.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Actually, Senior Sports Editor Matt “Connie Mack” Conrad wrote the first Buzz post. It was later accidentally deleted.
This doesn’t make Tannenwald any less cool, however.
Bring back Tannenwald.