doodledee

In case you didn't notice, the Star Tribune's Vikings blog is kicking the ass of every other Vikes blog on the planet. And they're doing it the right way because they've been doing it the right way all along, they just didn't know what they had to do until this past season. Or maybe they just didn't understand the web? Not sure*.

The key to their success? They took their beat to the people. They've got more or less two full time dudes assigned to cover the Vikes. These guys live, eat, and breathe everything that the organization does. And it's not a hobby, it's their job. So there's coverage of everything. Press conferences, worthless interviews given at the combine (which they went to, of course), silly rumors, locker room comments, etc. Stuff that Garrick's Army of Independent Bloggers would never have the time, resources, or access to get at. And guess what: people are crazy about it. The season is long over, we have an awful team, free agency is flat lining, the draft is weeks and weeks away, and yet the VikesBlog rages on with tons of news and a super active readership. Because the beat goes on, and with it goes the blog.

This is exactly the type of thing that Big Media both can and should be doing more of. Lord knows the Strib is trying. I think they launched 14 new Twins blogs this spring or something. (Have fun with that, JoePa.) And I think they tried to bring the 'local news' stuff down to that level with buzz.mn, but I'm officially saying they missed the mark. I know there are beat writers all over the place, but for the most part the 'beat' stuff isn't what shows up on buzz. Where is my daily fix of capital news? Or city hall? Or parks? Or police? Or the airport? Or whatever. And it's not like I'm asking for all of that to be be crammed into whatever Buzz is supposed to be, but why aren't they somewhere? And don't tell me to read the paper, either, because when you do I'll point to the 80% of the VikesBlog that doesn't end up in print.

Access Vikings [strib]
Buzz.mn [buzz]

* - Yes, in fact, understanding must have been the issue. Otherwise they wouldn't have put so much energy into gardening and treehouse blogs and would have spent more time exposing beats to their readers. In other news, I think it's time for me to invent a new term for beat-based blog. Beblog, maybe? Works for me.