A Thanksgiving Thank You

By Steve Hynd

Another year, another Thanksgiving, eh? It's been quite a year, too. Last year we were all wondering if Obama's campaign rhetoric would translate into reality. This year we're just thankful he's not George W. Bush, but rather the American version of Tony Blair.

But this is to be a positive post. Among many of the things I will give thanks for tomorrow, as every year, two are worthy of mention here: my blogging colleagues and Newshoggers' readers.

The team I blog with here are, I believe, some of the brightest bulbs on the internet. So much so, in fact, that my co-bloggers are consistently ahead of the curve, ahead of the news cycle. I've been told by more than one A-list blogger that they read Newshoggers regularly to find out what they'll be blogging about in the weeks or even months ahead. That's one hell of an accolade and one we intend to continue trying to live up to.

I want to thank Dave, Ron and John, my partners, for the time they devote to thought and discussions behind the scenes, where we try to pick out the trends we should be following, as well as the many hours they spend writing posts every week. We do it for the love of it, certainly not for money. Ad revenue pays for the domain but over that barely buys each of us a six pack at Christmas.

I want to thank our contributors: Eric, B.J., Jay, Russ and Ken, along with the latest additions to our group, Gregg and Derrick. They each bring their own areas of expertise and styles to our virtual pages and the blog would be a far poorer place without them. The Newshoggers partners are proud to blog alongside them. Thanks to our researcher Kat too, who sends us so much news we sometimes don't have time to read it all!

And finally I'd like to thank you, our readers and commenters. You're an integral part of the Newshoggers team too. There aren't a whole lot of you -- our readership is only some 1,200 a day, far below that of many other blogs. But many of you are bloggers, journalists or "movers & shakers" in politics, business or government service -- both in America and further afield. Many of you bring your own expertise in your comments too, informing our posts for the future. You are the key ingredient that allows us "punch above our weight", so to speak.

Thank you, and a Happy Thanksgiving!

As is customary for the holidays, posting will probably be a bit more sporadic than usual between now and Monday. But we'll still be here daily, so keep checking back.

We'll keep this post "on top" until Sunday Friday. New content will apear below.