6.1: Introduction

Kevin Cullen, a projects reporter for The Boston Globe, was introduced to the practice of blogging during the 2006 World Cup as a U.S. correspondent for the Goethe-Institut. Simultaneously he was filing for The Globe’s sports desk.

“The next day, I compared my words that had gotten into the paper with what I wrote for the blog,” Cullen wrote in the December 2006 issue of Nieman Reports. “The blog entry seemed better than the newspaper story. It wasn’t much longer, maybe by 300 to 400 words, but those extra words contained some good quotes, some stylistic segues, and a little more color. It was, without a doubt, a better read. Unencumbered by the need to squeeze words into a finite space, the Internet proved better for me, as the writer, and I’d argue for readers, too, than newsprint.”

Many new media analysts have suggested that every reporter should have a blog. That may not be feasible (or sensible), but scores of successful journalist blogs are currently online, allowing the blogger/reporter to cultivate a community with readers to test ideas, receive early and direct feedback and publish in the timeliest manner possible.

A good blog helps a blogger/reporter enhance his or her authority on a beat by adding the ability to publish information outside of the traditional news cycle and story format. It also helps the news organization establish a deeper relationship with readers and leverages the wisdom of the crowd for the benefit of the reporter’s coverage.

“Readers are our friends,” says Ben Mutzabaugh, who blogs about business travel for USA Today, when asked what he has learned as a blogger for the past five years. “In print it’s easy to feel you are at odds with readers because people will find one little thing wrong. So as a journalist you get defensive. The readers on a blog chime in and help you. They want you to get the story right. … Readers help make the blog stronger than any single author could make it alone.”

The rules are different with a blog. You can play off other information you find online, even linking to stories and blogs that might be thought of as “competition” but, in reality, are essentially all part of the virtual community conversation on a given topic.

A 2006 study by the Bivings Group found that 80 of the top 100 daily newspapers in the U.S. have at least one reporter blog on their Web sites. On 67 of these blogs, readers can add their own comments.¹

USA Today's Today in the Sky blog, written by Ben Mutzabaugh.

Simply launching a blog is not good enough, however. Bob Cauthorn, a former editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, once noted the challenge for reporter blogs: “I think it's going to be difficult for newspapers to do blogs right because their DNA continues to be trapped in the ‘we talk, you listen’ mode.”

A good blog is an ongoing conversation. It is facilitated by you, but, if it works, it may be dominated by your audience. If that happens, you win, the news organization wins and, most importantly, the readers win.

References

1. "The Use of Internet by America’s Newspapers" study, The Bivings Group, 2006.