Comments on: Question: What are some novel ways to get the newsroom involved in the web site? http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/ Thoughts on building relevance, online storytelling, and local journalism Fri, 16 May 2008 19:41:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Jonathan Tamari http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-10004 Jonathan Tamari Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:58:14 +0000 http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-10004 Totally agree on getting involved in on line media (especially if you/we expect to be in this business for very long). I assume that by "fluffing" you mean pumping up the paper's own blogs to make them look more popular. I could see this being a problem if there was some mandate (everyone has to post twice a week or else!), but if it was a natural part of the conversations and reporters weren't the only ones commenting, I think it would enhance the discussion. It makes intuitive sense to me, and I would hope to readers, that a newspaper's staff would feel ownership of their paper's blogs and would participate in them. Possibly a way around the appearance of pumping yourself up would be to regularly rotate reporters in as commentors, so it's not inflating the comments. For example, maybe the movie critic writes two or three times a week, and then another reporter or two do one post each a week. It accomplishes the same goal of using the staff talent as much as possible, potentially widens the appeal of a given blog with different voices. I do not think many reporters participate in local blogs, not that I know of anyway. Covering state politics, I read a few of the more prominent political blogs each day, but most of them are either very partisan or of questionable reliability. Participating in those could, I think, be seen as a tacit endorsement. Totally agree on getting involved in on line media (especially if you/we expect to be in this business for very long).

I assume that by “fluffing” you mean pumping up the paper’s own blogs to make them look more popular. I could see this being a problem if there was some mandate (everyone has to post twice a week or else!), but if it was a natural part of the conversations and reporters weren’t the only ones commenting, I think it would enhance the discussion. It makes intuitive sense to me, and I would hope to readers, that a newspaper’s staff would feel ownership of their paper’s blogs and would participate in them.

Possibly a way around the appearance of pumping yourself up would be to regularly rotate reporters in as commentors, so it’s not inflating the comments. For example, maybe the movie critic writes two or three times a week, and then another reporter or two do one post each a week. It accomplishes the same goal of using the staff talent as much as possible, potentially widens the appeal of a given blog with different voices.

I do not think many reporters participate in local blogs, not that I know of anyway. Covering state politics, I read a few of the more prominent political blogs each day, but most of them are either very partisan or of questionable reliability. Participating in those could, I think, be seen as a tacit endorsement.

]]> By: Joe http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-9823 Joe Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:02:52 +0000 http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-9823 Tamari! I think it's vital that journos 'get their feet wet' in online media, and writing about stuff they don't do in their day job is a simple way to avoid the problems with objectivity that keep the more hard-news folk from writing. The challenge here is it could look like the newspapers are "fluffing" their in-house blogs. I'm not sure how you get around that -- if journalists participated / read external local blogs it might not matter, but I don't know how common that is. Do you? -Joe Tamari!

I think it’s vital that journos ‘get their feet wet’ in online media, and writing about stuff they don’t do in their day job is a simple way to avoid the problems with objectivity that keep the more hard-news folk from writing.

The challenge here is it could look like the newspapers are “fluffing” their in-house blogs. I’m not sure how you get around that — if journalists participated / read external local blogs it might not matter, but I don’t know how common that is. Do you?

-Joe

]]> By: Jonathan Tamari http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-9649 Jonathan Tamari Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:21:00 +0000 http://www.joethink.com/blog/2007/11/question-what-are-some-novel-ways-to-get-the-newsroom-involved-in-the-web-site/#comment-9649 Hey Joe. Great question. How about encouraging reporters, and other newsroom staff, to participate in blogs outside their coverage area. For example, a political reporter could weigh in on the local sports team; a sports reporter may have thoughts on a new movie. Not necessarily as in their own blogs, but as comments and responses to what the beat writers and readers have to say, furthering the conversation. One of the great things about the newsroom is that you'll find a lot of people with diverse interests and plenty of opinions, and they're skilled at putting their thoughts into an interesting sentence or two. Why not tap into that? For example, there's a political reporter at a rival newspaper whose a big movie buff - I'd read a few grafs on what he thought of new releases. I've often thought of starting a politics blog, but am partly held back by worries about staying neutral on the subjects I cover. But I also have lots of thoughts in my spare time on sports and music and other interests -- if I could write quick hits on those, it would seem a lot less like work and more like fun. And hopefully would keep a conversation going on our web site. - Jonathan Tamari Hey Joe. Great question.
How about encouraging reporters, and other newsroom staff, to participate in blogs outside their coverage area. For example, a political reporter could weigh in on the local sports team; a sports reporter may have thoughts on a new movie. Not necessarily as in their own blogs, but as comments and responses to what the beat writers and readers have to say, furthering the conversation.
One of the great things about the newsroom is that you’ll find a lot of people with diverse interests and plenty of opinions, and they’re skilled at putting their thoughts into an interesting sentence or two. Why not tap into that?
For example, there’s a political reporter at a rival newspaper whose a big movie buff - I’d read a few grafs on what he thought of new releases.
I’ve often thought of starting a politics blog, but am partly held back by worries about staying neutral on the subjects I cover. But I also have lots of thoughts in my spare time on sports and music and other interests — if I could write quick hits on those, it would seem a lot less like work and more like fun. And hopefully would keep a conversation going on our web site.

- Jonathan Tamari

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