Contributors to The Times have recently started blogging in numbers.

TheTimesOnline Law Weblog is authored by Edward Fennell, Gary Slapper, Mark Stephens, Alex Wade and friends, while the Law section continues to offer legal news and comment in parallel.

Such a dichotomy is not uncommon on news sites at present. The blogs allow less formal reporting and comment, free from the usual editorial strictures, and interaction with the audience; but the news pages have to fit the existing publishing system and have to sit outside the blogs, so the news sections are retained. This split is a pain for us readers but is easily overcome: blog all the news, linking to the full published articles.