News from the blogosphere for publishers

The election’s over, so it’s time to refocus on some winning tools and services that can help you “change” your site. We also found a tomato that’s far from rotten. Read on…

Building a better blog
Calling all bloggers—the folks at the MyBlogLog Blog recently announced that they are teaming up with Zemanta to make your blogging toolbox more powerful. Zemanta helps you find photos, tags and related links when you’re working on your blog post. Be sure to check out the partnership to bring your blogging to the next level.

Twitter tips
It looks like some major newspapers are finally catching on to the Twitter medium, as reported by the Publishing 2.0 Blog. Newspapers can use Twitter as more than just “another place to dump their content,” says the blog. Instead, “newsrooms should see it as a way to create a whole new dimension of value under their editorial brand.”

The blog also says that many newsrooms are missing a huge point: sharing interesting stuff. “As newsrooms increasingly look to link journalism and news aggregation as a way to create value for their readers, they should look to their Twitter accounts as an easy platform for sharing links.” Read more here.

Top tomato
For the second year in a row, Yahoo! offered a prize to the blogger who mobilized the most readers to donate to DonorsChoose, the charity that lets you directly fulfill wish lists for public school teachers. The Yodel Anecdotal blog recently announced this year’s winner: Sarah Bunting, the blogger behind Tomato Nation. Tomato Nation mobilized 1,162 donors, raising $111,352 and reaching 19,577 kids. Sarah is making good on her promise to tour various Washington D.C. monuments dressed as a tomato while drawing attention to our nation’s public schools.

— Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications