Blogs about newspaper companies

Nieman Journalism Lab lauds Jim Hopkins at Gannett Blog for keeping a watchful eye on what is the largest newspaper chain in the United States and for offering other Gannett observers a virtual water cooler to gather 'round.

From the write-up (which notes he took a sanity break for several months last year):

And so, on Dec. 9, Hopkins resumed publication. Mindful of his yearning for a return to traditional journalism, this time he stuck to straight news, without the contentious tone of its earlier period. By setting a different tone on the news side, he felt that he could “dial down the volume of the anger” in the comments, and he has largely succeeded in this goal.

He has more actively monitored the comments, entering the threads himself to keep it focused, correct misinformation and prevent flame wars. “When people try to pick a fight, I don’t engage them. it’s tempting sometimes, but I think once, twice, and three times.” His personal life stays out of the blog these days. (You can find him on Facebook for that angle.)

-snip-

An innovation on Gannett Blog, inspired by the fact that comments were getting more pageviews than anything else on the blog, is the open-ended “realtime comments” post that’s always at the top of the page. It simply says, “Can’t find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum.” Hopkins refreshes that post once a week; it often garners more than 100 comments — far more than his typical posts do.

 The report has links to other blog watchdogs, including Lee Watch, the anti-McClatchy McClatchy Watch and guild-run MediaNews Monitor. Don't forget LA Observed, which isn't a watchdog blog per se, but keeps a watchful eye on the Los Angeles Times and its parent, Tribune Co.

Gannett Blog to close up shop

Jim Hopkins of Gannett Blog said he will stop writing about the turmoil of the Gannett newspaper and put the blog in deep freeze come October. Hopkins, a former reporter and editor at USA Today, cited the psychological toll - he's headed to Ibiza:

[T]he tone of comments shifted in December -- for entirely understandable reasons. Many of Gannett's 41,500 employees came to understand what was taking place in the company. They are now fear-filled, desperate, angry -- even suicidal, on occasion. Blogging can be very stressful, of course. Now, I'm finding it may be psychologically harmful, too.