News-Record.com

I have discovered that the News & Record already does that - it is called Letters To The Editor. I have also seen where the N&R has allowed writers to submit "Guest Columns".

I read a lot of the blogs and some are quite good; but blogs are blogs and the newspaper is the newspaper. As some bloggers improve their writing skills, I would think that they might write letters or submit columns.

A regular feature from the bloggers might be interesting; but I doubt it would meet the threshhold of reader interest needed to justify space at this time.

Sign me up.

Would this be a suggestion that came with a paycheck? Equal to (lets say) what a blogger/journalist such as Ed Cone recieves for his contract services?

Ross, I doubt it. It would probably be more like Don Moore describes, although this is just a thought. The pay would be the placement in the paper. I guess those thinking of participating would have to decide if that's enough.

The blogging format is a more freewheeling vehicle than the typical letter to the editor or guest column. The prospect that comments will be printed could inhibit some of the discussion or debate that takes place, thereby defeating the purpose of the vehicle. Perhaps if it were clear that publication would only occur with the consent of the writer, this problem could be averted.

The potential for a greater level of community enlightenment could result if the publication of blogs were to be done well. We are all familiar with the anointed punditry and the degeneration into shouting matches that occurs on some of the cable news programs. Most of us are also aware of the severe limitations associated with the televised presentation of news and the implications this has for genuine democracy and the creation of a civil society.

Perhaps the blog format, if done well and in an incisive, literate fashion, can allow the publication of discussion and/or debate in point/counterpoint fashion which could expand upon the range of voices and views typically heard and aired, particularly at the local level, and invite greater engagement among readers. If nothing else, it would help strike a blow against the passivity in acquiring news information and altering local circumstances.

Heck fire, I ain't skerred! I think I can take 'em. I'll take on a newspaper sized audience anytime! Tell Chewie I said, "thanks." John, where do I sign up?

I think if you want to publish a writer's work in your for-profit publication run by a large regional corporation, you need to provide compensation just as you do with all other freelance contributors. Charles Davenport's work product should not be valued at a higher level than David Hoggard's. I wouldn't let the early euphoria of being noticed at all allow online writers to support a system where organizations such as Landmark use the online wrting community as a ready pool of unpaid talent. I'd be excited too if I could find a free source of the product I produced -- writing, in this case, and resell it at a profit, particularly if there was a buzz around the content.

If the N&R creates a hub page with links to local online writers, with or without editorial comments, feeds, and excerpts -- that is another matter and completely appropriate.

I don't see evil motives behind John's thinking, just a shrewd willingness to know a good deal when he sees it.

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

By featuring a weekly blogger in your pages would suggest that a blogger has a more important community voice than a non-blogging citizen. That wrong-headed distinction would be implied if Chewie's idea were to be adopted.

A weblogger has a louder voice than a non-blogger, not a more important one.

What appears in the paper from citizens should be there by virtue only of their status as such and their ability to string words into a cohesive sentence or two. Granting special access, paid or otherwise, to a blogger simply because he/she blogs makes little sense to me.

Unless there is a lot of money involved, of course.

Many good and variegated points have already been made, and mostly from the "inside"...meaning inside Greensboro. Would that Charlotte had such problems to decide. We are still apparently in the 20th century down here. Thank God for the lifeline of Greensboro bloggers, and by extension, the Greensboro newspaper...which I may never have found were it not for bloggers. For that alone, the bloggers should be rewarded, if only in newsprint.

Newspapers aren't necessarily better writing than can be found in blogs. It is, however, better edited. In China, it is said that many editors will allow typos to stand, just so people can call or write in and tell them of their goof. It makes it more personal, more raw, if you will.

I might even suggest leaving typos on the blogs you print, and yet I would think it best to fix the errors that would alter the meaning significantly. But that is really a side issue.

I applaude you and your paper for your bold and visionary reaching out into the future, and, truth be told, giving a helping hand to, well, your own people. Future O. Henrys, I like to think.

Imagine, if you will, ten years hence. Today's bloggers are now big-time authors, poets, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs. And all with people to thank for their rise to success.
This is surely better than money.

It cannot be anything other than a mutually beneficial proposition. I only hope Charlotte catches wind from the maelstrom brewing up north.

David K Beckwith
Charlotte