What's the deal with all these blogs?

The Free Press carried two blogs about a month ago. We now have more than four times that many. Yes, we've quadrupled our blogs to number nine.

That's not bad expansion for an industry that supposedly is losing its fifth gear or its audience. Not here. So, what's the deal with all these blogs?

First, we want to make more connections with our readers. We now have the power and technology (the Web) to do it, so it just makes sense. Each blog is designed to give readers insight into the daily work of Free Press reporters and editors. The topics range from fishing, higher education, entertainment to baseball, hockey and general editor and publisher community blogs.

We hope to provide readers some interesting insights into how we do our job - giving them a picture of their community every day.

We hope to build our "brand." While brand tends to be a marketing jargon word, it's important people recognize the "brand" of The Free Press. In a nutshell: Comprehensive news about your and your community by people who are knowledgeable, intelligent and yes, at times, humorous.

We have and will continue to grow our audience. Our total audience as measured by print circulation, Web site and special e-edition has grown by about 15 percent in the last year. That's a very high number for growing interest in a product, any product, during a recession.

Our blogs, so far, are garnering a good amount of traffic and we hope to expand them and as always cross-promote them in the print edition.

Blogs also give the reader a chance to "talk" to the reporter about coverage or listen to their thinking on it, and gain other insights that normally would not fit into the typical format of a print-edition story.

We think our blogs offer our readers a chance to get to know us better and spend more time with us.