Metblogs, media and Minnesota

Metroblogging, aka Metblogs, an on-line network of bloggers in cities around the world, announced last week that it would end on May 31. (After a last-minute scramble for funding, it now appears that they may continue for a while - or not.) Metblogs claimed more than 700 bloggers in 57 city-specific blogs. One of the cities was/is Minneapolis (sorry, St. Paul - left out again). Metblogs is not the only multi-city, trying-to-be-local media group with some kind of Minnesota operation - more on that later in June.

Metroblogging listed 10 Minneapolis bloggers, and claimed that its Minneapolis Metblog had a total of 3,297 posts and 7,452 comments.  (Posts for the 10 listed Minneapolis bloggers totaled only 922, so take the numbers with a grain of salt.) Will the demise of Metblogs mean less local blogging or a diminished local blogging scene? Not likely.

Minnesota bloggers have lots of places to be published - TC Daily Planet alone publishes and republishes at least five new posts each day from more than 60 blogs, and we are open to more. MinnPost recently began republishing some blogs in its Minnesota Blog Cabin.

While some blogging is national (think Talking Points Memo or the Daily Kos, or the bloggers on Salon and Huffington Post), much of the good stuff is local. For public affairs analysis, take a look at Minnesota Budget Bites or Hindsight. Crazy Boy Farm, FreshMN, Flyover Land and Sidewalk Dog offer unique and individual perspectives.  Facts and Fictions and Downstream come to us from Minnesota literary figures. TC Jewfolk, Hmoob Teen, and Rez Adventures share ethnic community points of view. And that's only a few of "our" bloggers.

If you'd like to follow our varied cast of bloggers, you can subscribe to our newsletter. And if you'd like to join the crew, just sign on and begin!