"Capitol Confidential Blog," Albany Times Union, 2008-2009
The Times Union' most-read blog, covering politics and policy in New York's state capitol.
As lead blogger for the Times Union's most-read blog, site traffic increased by over 30 percent in less than a year, hitting close to a half million page views per month.
From Governing Magazine, January 2009:
Albany political blogs "remain the first — and often second, third, fourth and fifth — daily stop for anyone trying to keep on top of New York City and state affairs.
Though there are plenty of online news sources in the state, when someone refers to "the blogs," they're generally talking about two of them: Elizabeth Benjamin's "The Daily Politics" for the New York Daily News (www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics) and the Albany Times-Union's group blog "Capitol Confidential" (blogs.timesunion.com/capitol), which, with the addition of the prolific Irene Jay Liu, has been giving Benjamin a run for her money."
For her work on Capitol Confidential, Irene was named one of The Capitol's "40 Rising Stars Under 40" in 2009 and led to the Times Union' collaboration with WMHT's "New York NOW."