{"id":113359,"date":"2013-09-07T22:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T22:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rockcontent.com\/?p=113359"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:32:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:32:24","slug":"blog-posts-vs-news-articles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingback.com\/en\/resources\/blog-posts-vs-news-articles\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing the Line Between Blog Posts and News Articles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Newspaper<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019ll be honest here as I begin to write this blog post\u2014no matter how hard I try, I can\u2019t write a blog post that doesn\u2019t partly resemble a news article.<\/p>\n

My serious writing style was initially patterned on The New York Times<\/em> news articles that I began reading at age 8, but evolved into a conversational style during my 30-year career. Although my style changed, I still researched news articles so thoroughly that they included a lot of dry information even when they began with me \u201ctalking\u201d to readers. Some of the articles I have written for WriterAccess clients have had more than 20 sources.<\/p>\n

When clients began assigning me blog posts, I kept writing news articles. One day, though, an editor told me that I didn\u2019t need to write an article on President Obama\u2019s health insurance proposal that covered every major aspect of the plan. \u201cRelax,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s a blog post.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the difference between a blog post and a news article? I demonstrated part of the answer in the above paragraphs although the distinctions are becoming increasingly smaller, according to this Slate <\/em>magazine article<\/a>. Blog posts are more personal. Their \u201cvoice\u201d differentiates one writer from another. News article writers can be different too as I demonstrated by \u201ctalking\u201d to readers, but news articles have more style and voice constraints.<\/p>\n

If this was a news article, I would have focused on the sources that I found for this topic such as The Washington Post\u2019s <\/em>Ezra Klein\u2019s blog post \u201cBlogs vs. articles<\/a>\u201d and WritersDigest.com\u2019s Brian Klems\u2019 blog post \u201cThe 12 Dos and Don\u2019ts of Writing a Blog<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A news article could begin \u201cDo you want to write a blog post or a news article?\u201d The second paragraph could say \u201cNoted writer Ezra Klein writes both, and he has advice about the differences.\u201d Then, I would report on Klein and Klems\u2019 views about the topic rather than my thoughts.<\/p>\n

Being the news reporter that I am, I felt compelled to research Klein and Klems\u2019 views. Thus, as I wrote in the first sentence, this blog post partly resembles a news article. An article, though, would detail Klein\u2019s perspective, but detailed explanations in blog posts are \u201cdone in a link,\u201d Klein writes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something kind of freeing about letting yourself off the hook when it comes to blog structure. You don\u2019t need to cover every single angle or gather a quote from three \u201cofficial\u201d sources\u2014sometimes, it\u2019s just your own observation that really resonates with readers. And if something feels unfinished or a little messy, that\u2019s part of the appeal. Even after decades of churning out tidy, neatly packaged articles, I still get a small thrill from leaving the edges a bit rough.<\/p>\n

That shift in focus\u2014away from rigid completeness and toward candid, sometimes uneven expression\u2014doesn\u2019t mean abandoning depth. It just means you get to approach the topic like you would a conversation, not a press conference. People come to blogs partly for information, but I\u2019d argue they\u2019re mostly there for the company. It\u2019s a subtle but real difference\u2014readers catch on fast when you\u2019re genuinely speaking to them, not trying to impress an invisible editor-in-chief peering over your shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn article is more like a lecture,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The personal nature of blog posts means that they have more regular readers and, thus, articles should be more concise and detailed because \u201cyou may not be able to speak with (the readers) again,\u201d added Klein. In addition, blog posts shouldn\u2019t have a word count limit, wrote Klems.<\/p>\n

I could list Klems\u2019 dos and don\u2019ts here, but this is a blog post, sort of, so I will conclude with MY tips for prospective web bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n