If A Blogger Falls in the Woods, Would A Journalist Notice?

In a meeting with some fellow members of the incredibly informal RVA Blog Network, ideas bounced around the table with the scattered energy typical of folks who spend their waking hours drinking from the firehose of the Information Superhighway.

In the coming months, some of those ideas will turn into very real and very specific opportunities for the hundreds of people in the Richmond region with weblogs.

We talked about ways to introduce more people -- especially those at the margins of the Internet as a result of age, education or class -- to weblogs, online journaling and community news. We brainstormed initiatives that could strengthen the content of Richmond's growing network of hyperlocal news sites. And we stumbled across a notion that could dramatically increase the relevance of weblogs as a community resource.

We also wondered why Richmond's mainstream media seemed so slow and awkward to embrace the 300+ weblogs (of every shape, color and content focus) as a resource -- or to add to the mix themselves. Why is the connection between the professional media and those crazy kids with their sassy webpages so diffuse?

Later that day, a friend in the thick of trying to reinvent Richmond's print media sent me a link to a new weblog penned by media consultant John Wilpers. He wonders the same thing (but nationally):

You might think that as you move down the list of large American newspapers, away from the tradition-laden (tradition-handicapped?) major metros of the east and west coasts (and, OK, Chicago), that you might find a greater connection between a newspaper and its community (e.g., more local bloggers and vloggers on the papers’ websites).

After all, among the 19 largest circulation metro dailies, we only found seven papers that welcomed bloggers — Denver, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Cleveland (hmmm, no east or west coast papers among that group….). It HAD to get better, right?

Wrong.

Sad to say, local bloggers are no more likely to be integrated into daily newspaper websites as you move down to papers below 400,000 circulation.

Of the next 15 largest metro newspapers (numbers 20-34), only five integrate local bloggers (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Portland Oregonian, Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel and San Antonio Express-News).

So, as editors wave goodbye to more and more laid-off, right-sized, bought-out staffers, those editors remain as incapable as “Blind Pew” of seeing the rich content being created all around them. As the old proverb goes, “God protects fools, children and drunkards,” but probably not purblind editors and the newspapers they work for.

But it's not just about integration for the sake of integrating, as Wilpers notes in a previous post. The weblog phenomenon is becoming mainstream, too, and it's starting to steal market share.

Look no further than the RVANews platform, which aggregates news feeds from 11 community news sites -- including one I operate, North Richmond News. NRN generates about 50% unique content (not published elsewhere in Richmond) and pulls together scattered content of interest to North Richmond residents from more than 20 news sources; it has an email subscription list of several hundred and generates more than 6,500 unique visits a month. Is it a threat to, say, the Richmond Times-Dispatch? Not yet.

Wilpers says that's about to change:

It’s time to be name names.

Too many big, ordinarily smart newspapers still refuse to involve high-quality local bloggers and vloggers on their websites and in the pages of their paper in any significant way beyond a lame, well-hidden, token local blogger index page (if that).

Now the thieves are at the door, about to make off with the family jewels (audience and advertising) and newspapers are leaving the doors unlocked and the valuables in plain sight...

...It’s time for editors to drop their tired excuses: “Bloggers aren’t journalists,” and “they’re just loonies in jammies,” and “my paper’s reputation will be sullied” (hey, guys, YOU choose which ones to publish!).

Pull in the best local bloggers and vloggers now or lose them and the thousands of folks who follow them, going where they can find the best local content and communities of shared interests.

So, here's a funny conclusion to this story. The best bloggers in Richmond decided not to wait. In the next few weeks, we hope to announce a new win-win for Richmond's ad-hoc, informal weblog community and for the mainstream print, radio and TV news. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Bookstore Piet]

I wouldn't be so sure they aren't listening (or reading...). I've received phone calls from both RTD and Style after posting some of my pieces. The reporter from RTD told me that some of their senior editors and the publisher troll RVA Blogs daily and are regular readers of many of the local blogs. Of course since I don't really read either of those publications I couldn't tell you whether they used any of the information they asked of me.

[John]

My main point wasn't whether they were reading the weblogs -- or trolling them for content -- but that what passes for the mainstream press in Richmond has been slower than molasses in effectively embracing weblog technology or even local weblogs as a way to drive readership or expand local content. And they've run at least six front-page features based on those phone calls they made to you, incidentally ... and one extremely flattering photo.

[Bookstore Piet]

Hopefully I wasn't in my 'jammies'....

[Paul]

Piet, You wouldn't be the first RVA Blogger to turn this into a paying gig. Perhaps some Arab internet mogul will pony up for stealing your stuff.

[Jason Roop]

I've also seen it go another direction: Some bloggers' posts have become the basis for commentaries they ended up publishing in print/online (Don Harrison, for example, Conaway Haskins). Then there's the boomerang effect: Blogger comments on print story. That blog's discussion/feedback turns into new idea. That's used as inspiration for a print story. And how about this one: Do you consider online comments by readers on a publication's Web site to be a scaled-down form of blogging? Final thought: Some bloggers have been reticent to collaborate with "traditional" print media because they consider it a hindrance to their independence.

[Dan Durazo]

I'm not a journalist, but I have a journalism degree and I feel the job security angst that is being projected by those editors. Journalism ain't what it used to be, what with fewer resources and almost non-existent in-depth coverage of complex topics (and don't get me started on TV "journalism"). Editors are bashed between the rock and a hard place economics of giving the heaving masses what they want (more celebrity idiocy) and the coverage that they need make informed decisions in an increasingly challenging world. What's a "I'm a journalist and this ain't what I signed up for" editor to do? Clearly, bloggers offer an outstanding resource for traditional media to beef up their resources AND attract a new audience. Rock on!

[Ed]

>>That blog's discussion/feedback turns into new idea. That's used as inspiration for a print story...There was a recent Virginia Gazette article (Busch Gardens) that cited news from the comments section of a previous article. >>Do you consider online comments by readers on a publication's Web site to be a scaled-down form of blogging?...You really have to troll through the comments section to find some real gems or even legit breaking news stories (Carol Wolf's trial balloon, Paul Goldman's response to the long school uniforms discussion on CHPN, etc). Flame Wars (ie, Save Richmond versus Lost Art) can be fun, too; like watching verbal ultimate fighting. :)

[John Wilpers]

Hi, John, Thank you for your references to my blog. I am impressed with what it sounds like you're about to do and I can't wait to get the details when you're ready to release them. People like you and your cohorts are the only ones who will be able to wake up papers like the RTD to what's around them and the potential they are squandering by keeping you folks at arm's length. Please let me know when you launch. I will keep an eye on your blog as well. I'd be happy to write about your project when you're ready for the publicity. And good luck! John Wilpers http://johnwilpers.wordpress.com

[David Mastio]

I think it would be smart for newspapers to build portals into the local blogosphere, sharing traffic and providing services to local blogs like such and headline widgets. It is something we have done with the daily in Knoxville (http://blognetwork.knoxnews.com) and certainly something we're interested in doing elsewhere. The next step would be using the newspapers ad sales force to sell ads that would be distributed across local blogs to the benefit of the paper and the bloggers. A dozen CBs stations around the country are already doing it. Later today I'll link to this discussion from the BNN blog. I can't wait to hear more about what you are doing.

[Pauline]

1) The Mayor receives Buttermilk & Molasses clips in his daily media digest when the blog references Richmond City topics. That's how Jon Baliles stepped into a $68,000 or more a year City job. Now he's being paid by the City to organize a party for the purple martins in the Bottom. Sweet! 2) The trouble with RVA Blogs is too many of them are navel-gazing...more like personal diaries. Not of interest to outsiders and nonfriends. RVA Blogs needs to be more selective about which ones it links to. I know...I know...bloggers hate editors, but there's too many bloggers now. These diary bloggers should switch to Twitter or something.

[BP]

Re: mainstream/blog intersection, I've seen some papers in other cities that often cite blogs as a 'first on the scene' witness, or in various other ways, just as they would cite other individuals in the community. In such cases the paper embraces the leads that blogs can offer, and the blogs drive traffic to the papers. Looks to be a pretty decent symbiotic relationship.