You know, it’s hard to look to the State’s largest newspaper for inspiration when they’re rehashing the same things I wrote about 2-3 weeks ago:

In recent days, state Rep. Dr. Blake Curd of Sioux Falls has shown up on that list, having spread the word that he is a possible player in the race for his party’s nomination for U.S. House.

(read it here) Granted, I didn’t feel the need to ask Joel Rosenthal about it, and Larry Pressler must be out of town, or he would have been asked to weigh in as well.  But it’s still old news at this point.

Twenty years ago, when I started in politics and being a political activist, there were certain writers and columnists who were “must reads” in terms of breaking political news.

Most might have changed homes (in terms of he dead-tree press) by now, but in terms of evolution, only a few have made the transition to blogging. And even fewer are using the digital medium to break stories – and the internet has reached a point where it’s the place where most are looking for their daily dose of political rumors and gossip.

I think it just shows that it’s getting tougher for the print media to keep up with the pace of news in this digital age. Many of those in writing for the papers are finding themselves having to compete, or facing being viewed as candidates for extinction.

Now, most newswriters have their stories on-line out of necessity, or because their parent company has a website, and they need content. But I’d argue only three mainstream political writers in South Dakota use blogs to break stories (and to varying degrees of success).

Kevin Woster was the first, and foremost entrant into the field of blogging with one of the anchors of the SD Blogosphere, Mt. Blogmore. Mt. Blogmore was an absolutely outstanding example of how a mainstream media outlet could use blogging with political and other news to be topical, immediate, and relevant. Along with Bill Harlan and Denise Ross (who has since come over to the dark side, and went strictly on-line with hoghouseblog) they dominated the South Dakota Blogosphere.

Unfortunately, their parent company screwed it all up. With the departure of Ross and Harlan, Mt. Blogmore went from being the best to being neutered, rebranded in a corporate manner, and now can go for days without a post from it’s own writers.  I can’t say I’ve cited it as having breaking news or anything edgy in months (January).    Kevin remains an outstanding writer, but his best tends to be saved for the Rapid City Journal, and not the venerable mount.

Dave Kranz (who I cited above) used to be “the man” and even as recently as 2002, I can rememeber getting up early to find out what he had written because in politics, it was that important.

Ah, but the Argus Leader and blogging.  Never let it be said that our State’s largest newspaper can ever mix with the pajama clad. Dave has had a couple of false starts in blogging as the Argus Leader still can’t make up it’s mind as to whether “Hitler would have a blog,”  or whether everyone in the world should “get published” at the Argus,  so they can try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of on-line advertising to bolster what it’s losing from falling circulation.

I like Dave, and early on his blog had promise, as he’d partially break a story, giving us a teaser on what he was going to write about in the coming days -  enticing us to follow up in the dead tree edition. I know I did. But his Prairie Politics page is an example of how to take the promise and to dash it on the jagged rocks of indifference.

What has been his blog activity as of late? 2 posts on February 3rd. One on May 26th. Then, one each on July 8th and 13th.  That’s it.  I’m not sure why anyone is bothering, and it’s a gross under-utilization of what could be a great and very readable political blog.

Bob Mercer is the latest entrant from the political columnists of the dead-tree press from decades past to take a stab at blogging. So far, a notable exception who is making the transition well, and is now embracing the on-line genre. Bob has been keeping his stuff very fresh, very current and topical. Pure Pierre Politics has a lot of promise. Not every post is a long in depth story – in fact, many are quite short.  But it is consistency that counts and he’s been doing a nice job.

If he can keep it up on a  long term basis, Mercer’s website could be the place to go for breaking mainstream news. The only thing hamstringing him at this point would be the fact you have to register on the site to leave comments – I did it, but it removes the immediacy and impulsiveness that most commenters are looking for.

As the mainstream media continues it’s foray into blogging, there are new entrants from that side of the fence. David Montgomery of the Capitol Journal brought the Cap Journal into the arena with Behind Government Lines. And Seth Tupper at the Mitchell Daily Republic’s blog the Republic Insider has been very good about covering breaking political news.

As the media shifts from a paper focus to on-line, and people are seeking news on less of a fast-food mass media basis, and looking for the personal touch of blogging, it remains to be seen if we can continue teaching some of the old dogs we grew up with all the new tricks.

Stay tuned.

Pat Powers writes mainly over at his home website

dakotawarcollege.com (and forgets to post it here like he should be.)