Ocean State Blogging

Nice work – Congrats!

Yes. We drive out to a place in western Cranston. All in separate cars so no one can trace the location.

Wait. You never do that when I’m around!

Now Jef, why didn’t you tell me that on the record? Talk about a good hook for a story: “Cult rituals unite urban planning bloggers”

Okay, first of all, New Haven, stop kicking our ass. Seriously, this is getting annoying.

Now that that’s off my chest, I’ll calm down. I don’t know if this was on his mind or on my mind or both, but Jef and I talked bloggers v. newspapers after the Prov Foundation hoo-ha.

For the last decade, I have been professionally required to watch this slow, horrible train-wreck called the newspaper industry. And Jef, because he’s professionally required to read what I write on his various outlets, knows how down I am on them and how I blame them for their own problems. He also knows how passionately I believe in the power of, for lack of a better term, citizen journalists.

I point to Sacramento Press, a fairly new community-driven news source. Check out this story from yesterday that’s about a potential story to go cover. What’s the story? A workshop on how development will affect the “edge environment” characteristics of a particular neighborhood. Pretty arcane as far as newspapers go, but right up the alley of, say, an urban issues oriented blogger. Heck, s/he might have been going anyway.

That meeting should be wrapping up by the time I get finished with this rant. Will anybody have covered it? I didn’t see anybody say they would…

I checked out the NH Independent, and it’s part of an “online journalism project” designed to keep reporters working. And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for reporters doing their thing. (Present company, especially.)

But this is their main About page self-description:

“A five-day-a-week report on news about the City of New Haven, Connecticut, produced by veteran local journalists, and by you.”

And how do “you” contribute? By commenting or by donating to the non-profit. Or sending photos or tips. Okay, it’s more than nothing, but there could be so much more.

The Indy’s Arts and Food sections – my sections – are not the strong part of the paper, given a brief once over. How many people could contribute awesome material? I bet DNH could list them by name. Why aren’t they part of the project?

Because that’s how newspapers think. “We’re the journalists. You’re the consumers.”

There isn’t even a community manager/moderator. I checked the comments where the editor and writer were called out for a provocative headline and, in typical newspaper style, they did not respond.

It just wreaks of old-school newspaper people.

So all of that is set up for this: I think Jef is right. We need the pro journos for a robust press. And we recognize that fact.

They need us, too. For depth, for breadth, for perspective, for quirks, for dirt, for niches, for connection to the community. All of which lowers costs and increases adverti$ing.

But they don’t recognize that fact. And it’s a real problem.

I can see a greater Providence community news source centered around the Projo, or even the Phoenix for that matter, that includes a wide group of bloggers and other contributors. A combination of SacPress and NHIndy. Gawker has the contribution/payment thing worked out. It’s not that complicated.

In my educated opinion, the reason this kind of thing hasn’t happened and won’t happen is that newspapers do not think highly enough of us to recognize that we are their only hope.

I guess I didn’t calm down.

endofrant