Blogging | Blogging news

A search for either city on Outside.in comes up with scores of postings from both the Tab and Globe blogs.The rankings have also touched off a raging debate at the local blog aggregator site Universal Hub (universalhub.com) , where bloggers in other cities were somewhat incredulous at the rankings.

The skeptics include Universal Hub's creator, Adam Gaffin ."Sorry, and no offense to folks in these two fine communities, but, just, no," Gaffin (who also covers local blogs for the Globe City Weekly section) wrote in a posting last week .

"Cambridge has at least 90 blogs and Somerville 60 or so." © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

More: Globe City/Region stories Breaking ...

Editorial columnist Daniel Weintraub, the first person at the paper to have a blog, now has two, one focused on state politics in Capitol Alert and the other on sacbee.com on health care.Writer Tom Philp, who two years ago was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials urging lawmakers to consider draining the reservoir at Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley, blogs about the politics of water.And, starting next week, editorial writer Stuart Leavenworth will begin one on global warming.Rodriguez said other newsroom editors may join him as bloggers.He envisions his blog dealing with questions from readers and breaking news, such as why, for example, the paper published a front-page photo of the Virginia Tech killer brandishing two handguns and posturing, commando-like, which several readers criticized.The new column will delve into issues more deeply and is being paired with the blog because, Rodriguez said, a sizeable number of the paper's readers don't have computers or use the Internet as their primary source of information.Some readers may be thinking how an editor's blog and column fits or doesn't fit with my role as public editor.Well, first let me say that Rodriguez is not my boss.

He and I both report to the paper's publisher, Janis Heaphy.That's an important distinction because it affords the public editor independence...