Blogging for the NYT biz section

Paul Boutin writes on VentureBeat about the process of blogging for the New York Times business section’s Gadgetwise blog.

Boutin writes, “Gadgetwise is what about how to buy and use stuff, rather than tracking the tech industry as the Bits blog does. Or in industry jargon, service journalism rather than trade news. I’ve finally found my purpose in life: Teaching America how to use Twitter.

“Businesswise, the only competitor my editors talk about is The Wall Street Journal. And while they’re cool with me explaining how we process a post, I’m sworn not to blab traffic stats. That’s the only part of the job that bugs me. I’m as much of a stats hound as anyone else with a blog.

“In many ways, the Times’ blogs are no different from anyone else’s. But there’s one organizational trick they employ very effectively: Division of Labor. Times bloggers don’t work on their own. They don’t handle every aspect of their blogs. Who does what is divided up to bring specific expertise to bear on different parts of each post. The result is I can crank out more posts, and those posts are better overall, than if we writers did everything ourselves. I know, not everyone wants to have other people involved in their blogging. But there’s a reason people work in teams.”

Read more here. Boutin walks you through the process of how a post makes it on the Web, including the fact that NYT blogs are edited.