ANNOUNCEMENTS

Rather abruptly, I present to you The Hotline's Blogometer. It's a project I've been working on for the National Journal's Hotline for nearly six months now, and finally today I got the go-ahead signal to take it out of beta and into the blogosphere.

The reaction since it first actually went up a few weeks back has humbled me -- I mean the good way. Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal (who really isn't all that mysterious anymore) calls it "very cool." The American Constitution Society's blog calls it "just the timewaster you've been looking for." More reactions can be found here and here, but the mention that really made my day was the highly-coveted and always-appreciated Instalanche — something this blog once experienced. (Update: Mickey Kaus has some very Mickey Kaus-like comments. I'm humbled again.)

So what is this Blogometer thing, exactly? It started as section of The Hotline. It remains so, but now it also has a dedicated page on the worldwide interwebs. On the net it is arguably a blog, but I don't see it as one. These days at work I spend nearly five hours a day scouring blogs, blog search engines, blog rankings and then more blogs, looking for interesting news, conversations, arguments, donnybrooks and rhubarbs, then organizing the mass of text and links into a comprehensive-yet-readable summary of what was being said in the political blogosphere over the previous 24 hours. I should add that the although I write the Blogometer, it is not "me," that is to say, it's a product of The Hotline and hence, it's bipartisan, it's irreverent, and narrated using the "editorial 'we.'"

The Blogometer debuted in the Hotline in late March, in fact on the day Terri Schiavo (an issue FLOG™ and I debated back in October 2003.) died. Since then we've added regular blogger interviews and a start on covering campaign blog advertising. With the help of the dot com staff and my superiors, the website came together over the few weeks. It's been fun — and we've only just started.

The advent of the Blogometer does mean something else: I've given up my contributorship to DCist. That was a tough one — Gothamist LLC is on the way up and DCist in particular is one of their most-trafficked sites. But I've had a good run, and I even got a Washington Monthly byline out of it. If my apartment building was on fire and I could only save one Monument feature that I wrote during my seven months on the volunteer-run site (an unlikely scenario, I know), I'd choose the one about the Masons, the LaRouchies and the Klan.

As for the Washington Canard, it will continue on as it ever has: At the times of my choosing, on no fixed schedule, and sometimes not for days. But you never when I'll post next — you'd better check back frequently.

Meanwhile, Oregon Sports Fan has gone on permanent hiatus, as the current editor (furthest on the left) is minding two ornery preteens all summer before spending a year in Germany. What will happen with it I can't say, but it'll remain where it is for awhile — I host all my images there.

I'll stop there now, although I'm awful tempted to tell the story of how I bit down onto a wire in my sandwich at a restaurant in my office building at lunch last Friday — maybe next time.

See you in the blogosphere.

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posted by WWB at 9:42 PM |