Governing on Texas political blogs

CQ's Governing magazine has an article on how "a new generation of web scribes is shaking up state capitol politics." They focus on Eileen Smith, the firedancing Pink Lady herself.

An interesting paragraph:

Blogs may pose a more direct challenge to political newsletters. Texas has three of them, the Quorum Report, Capitol Inside, and Texas Weekly. Each charges $250 for an annual subscription, and is aimed more or less at the same niche of insiders that the blogs reach for free. Currently, the blogs come nowhere close to the newsletters in terms of providing useful information for staffers or lobbyists. But that could change. It all depends on who decides to take up blogging — and what sort of information they’re willing to share. “Blogs now have more gossip and entertainment value than the kind of stuff that would dominate the decision-making political conversation,” says Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report. Kronberg admits that he reads In The Pink, but he doesn’t see Eileen Smith or her contemporaries as a threat. “Blogs don’t have the range, the reach or the institutional memory. That’s not to say someone won’t come along who does.”
Mostly agreed. I've had the pleasure of Quorum Report and Texas Weekly subscriptions in the past, and I thought both were well worth the money. I've never had the chance to try Capitol Inside, though I've heard good things.

The day could come when blogs could supplant those three newsletters, but that day isn't imminent.

Posted by Evan @ 07/02/05 09:24 PM

 
 

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