Care and feeding of blogs.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)

As the editorial writing craft continues its evolution from a print to an online medium, the blog has emerged as the place where the action is.

The blog, in so many ways, is the perfect vehicle for editorials and the conversations that surround them. A good blog is succinct, provocative and includes links to support the underlying facts. It is timely, flexible, and, as we learn how to adapt online tools, a blog is a place to carry on multiple conversations in a multitude of channels. Think of it as a party where the reader can slide from one discussion to the next at will or take center stage.

Kate Riley, who just concluded two years as The Masthead editor, had so many ideas from her new assignment as the Seattle Times associate editorial page editor/online, that she just had to share what she has learned about promoting blogs. Feed the blog and it will thrive. Take the blog to the readers who passionately care about the topic of the hour and you infuse it with strength.

And we're all looking for a little more muscle these days as 2009 shapes up as the most challenging year ever for media.

That's why this issue includes some practical tips on blogs from Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, and NCEW members who have taken their blogs to a new level: Dallas Morning News editorial page editor Keven Ann Willey and her blog innovator Michael Landauer, Miriam Pepper at The Kansas City Star, and Jim Boren at The Fresno Bee.

Pete Wasson at the Wassau Daily Herald in Wisconsin explains how you can use the live chat software CoverItLive to engage the community in debate in ways never before available. At my own paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, we experimented with the software in mid-January to host a discussion on the sorry state of California's budget--S42 billion in the red and no plan to address it as of this writing. With one day's promotion, we had 75 readers chime in with serious questions, thoughtful comments and compelling insights during a one-hour chat. Then we linked the transcript to our blog. Are we convinced this is a tool for us? Absolutely.

With a nod to the reality that our industry is going through a shakeup we could hardly imagine three years ago, blog entrepreneur David Mastio offers some nuts-and-bolts ideas of how to stay in the game if your current employer doesn't.

This is my first issue as editor of The Masthead, and I have a tough act to follow. Kate Riley kept us informed--I'm almost thinking the word is armed--during the past eight issues with the best and most current thinking about what it will take to keep our craft and our necessary role in our democracy alive. I plan to keep the conversation going in coming issues and welcome any and all input--what you'd like and what isn't useful. Send me a note at lkazakoff@sfchronicle.com.

Speaking of the future, read NCEW Web editor Dan Radmacher's vision of the changes coming to The Masthead. Yes, The Masthead is moving online, too. We hope to offer a beefed-up site in July with up-to-the minute information about the world of opinion. And, of course, a blog.

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