All about New York's 29th Congressional District http://www.fighting29th.com/node/4614/atom/feed 2008-01-03T09:27:29-05:00 http://www.fighting29th.com/2008/01/local-media-is-where-its-at.html 2008-01-03T09:27:29-05:00 2008-01-03T09:27:29-05:00 Rottenchester

This post has a good round-up, including graphs.   I have an explanation that has nothing to do with left-wing fatigue, right-wing ascendency or Barack Obama.  My guess is the national decline indicates that some of the audience for political blogging is going local.

For example, Rochesterturning, which mainly covers local political issues but occasionally discusses national ones, is celebrating its 18-month anniversary.  Unless its readers have suddenly gotten an extra few minutes added to their day, I assume some of its traffic growth comes at the expense of national blogs.  Other left-leaning blogs have sprung up in New York, including Room 8 in New York City, and The Albany Project.  There are currently fewer local conservative blogs, and most of them are newer than their liberal counterparts (one example is Ontario GOP).  I assume that local conservative blogs will continue to spring up, and they'll eventually take some traffic from the national conservative blogs.

Speaking of local media, a new, independently-run town forum has sprung up in Henrietta.  In addition to carrying the new posts of former D&C blogger Peter Boulay, the forum also has a section where the Messenger-Post reporter on the Henrietta beat, Jessica Gaspar, solicits story ideas and asks for feedback.  Jessica's availability and responsiveness is in sharp contrast to the beat reporters for the D&C.  I've sent a couple of emails to D&C reporters and never gotten an answer. 
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This post has a good round-up, including graphs.   I have an explanation that has nothing to do with left-wing fatigue, right-wing ascendency or Barack Obama.  My guess is the national decline indicates that some of the audience for political blogging is going local.

For example, Rochesterturning, which mainly covers local political issues but occasionally discusses national ones, is celebrating its 18-month anniversary.  Unless its readers have suddenly gotten an extra few minutes added to their day, I assume some of its traffic growth comes at the expense of national blogs.  Other left-leaning blogs have sprung up in New York, including Room 8 in New York City, and The Albany Project.  There are currently fewer local conservative blogs, and most of them are newer than their liberal counterparts (one example is Ontario GOP).  I assume that local conservative blogs will continue to spring up, and they'll eventually take some traffic from the national conservative blogs.

Speaking of local media, a new, independently-run town forum has sprung up in Henrietta.  In addition to carrying the new posts of former D&C blogger Peter Boulay, the forum also has a section where the Messenger-Post reporter on the Henrietta beat, Jessica Gaspar, solicits story ideas and asks for feedback.  Jessica's availability and responsiveness is in sharp contrast to the beat reporters for the D&C.  I've sent a couple of emails to D&C reporters and never gotten an answer. 
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