The Blog DoggerWal-Mart launches blog in shadow of scandal

The big box retailer gives blogging another try in spite of last year’s debacle, large corporations unite online to the annoyance of many, and Gawker bloggers quit over new policy

After limping away from the blogosphere last year, Wal-Mart has returned with its new employee-penned blog Check Out. It’s an attractive, well-built blog with insightful posts on sustainability, gaming, gadgets and more. It is not the greeters and cashiers writing these entries, however. Instead, nine front-office folk at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club contribute to Check Out.

Among the contributors is Rand Waddoups, Wal-Mart’s senior director of corporate strategy and sustainability. He has already written several posts about corporate sustainability on Check Out that are worth your time. Waddoups recently told blogger Jeremiah Owyang (of Web Strategy blog) that his Check Out posts are not reviewed or filtered by the powers that be at Wal-Mart; he can “publish at will.”