The New York Times has recently hired Brian Stelter, the 21-year-old,Towson University graduate blogger behind TVNewser.com. The hire comes after the Times recently wrote an article about Stelter, “The Kid With All the News About the TV News,” which discusses the importance of his blog; a blog which is frequented by top executives in the industry.

In an internal memo, the Times discusses the hire:
“Brian Stelter, the TVNewser blogger, is joining the Times next month as an 8i reporter to cover the media world for NYTimes.com and for the paper. He will report to media editor Bruce Headlam, and will work closely with Business Day reporters and with our friends in Culture, including television editor Steve Reddicliffe and reporters Bill Carter, Jacques Steinberg and Ed Wyatt.

“His hiring underscores the expansion of our efforts to integrate what we do online and in the print edition. Working with Bruce and our Culture colleagues, Brii will help shape our media coverage on the Web. And, like Michael de la Merced, who was brought on to write for DealBook but has been a major contributor to the paper's coverage of financial news, Brian will do both; indeed, we expect many of his online postings to become news stories.”

Indeed, this publicized hire provides a good example of print/online integration and the value some newspapers place on certain bloggers.

Source: The New York Observer through IWantMedia