1/4/12

Sources of Info for Your Blog Posts: Site Organizing News by State

Here’s a site that I recommend to my clients for their blogging and which I’ve used myself for several years now:  US News by State.
It not only provides news stories that are breaking in the various states, it also lists the larger cities or metropolitan areas within those states.  That’s great but it gets better than that: within these lists, the various news stories (hyperlinked to their sources) are provided outlet by outlet. 
For example, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the top news stories are listed (with time and date) for:
  • Dallas Business Journal
  • Dallas KTVT
  • Dallas KXAS
  • Dallas WFAA
  • Fort Worth Star Telegram (three versions)
There’s also a search feature.
Of course, not all media sources are included here.  The Dallas Morning News is absent from the above list, and it’s a major player in that market.  If I were writing about something dealing with Dallas or Fort Worth or the surrounding area, you betcha that I would also go and check out the latest at the Dallas Morning News site.
What Do You Do With the News Stories?
Once you’ve got a list of news stories, then you’ve got a springboard for your next post.  It’s great because it’s local and local coverage is excellent for most blogs. Especially law blogs.
However, for any blogger, news stories can be something that you can hyperlink within your post as you discuss something relevant to that post.
For instance, I coauthor a blog with Terry Lenamon that deals exclusively with the death penalty.  In the Fort Worth Star Telegram today there is a story by Anna Tinsley entitled “Texas still top state for the death penalty.” 
I will read this story for a possible link within a post on Terry Lenamon on the Death Penalty.  Terry’s not in Texas, so it would serve only as a secondary link – Texas lead in the death penalty stats is a bigger story in Fort Worth than in it is Miami.  This story may be helpful to fuel the fires for how Florida ranks in the death penalty, what Florida’s Powers that Be are doing in 2012 about the death penalty, etc.
You get the idea.