Google Now Highlighting Journalists on Google News

[engine]

Google Now Highlighting Journalists on Google News [googlenewsblog.blogspot.com]

Google News is rolling out more information about journalists over the next several weeks, starting with English-language editions. When reporters link their Google profile with their articles, Google News now shows the writer’s name and how many Google+ users have that person in their circles. For the lead article for each story, Google News also shows that reporter’s profile picture and enables readers to add them to their Google+ circles right from the Google News homepage.

[tedster]

This could be a positive enhancement - there are several journalists I appreciate very much and would like to follow more closely. But it looks like I need to use Google+ to get any value as an end user, and I'm not feeling this as a strong enough reason to add another social channel to my routine.