Life is a highway; I wanna ride it
I attended this Nieman reunion last weekend, but not this event. I'm not a Nieman Fellow. I know some Nieman Fellows, and I'm not nearly smart enough. I had enough trouble as a student 30 years ago. Why go back? Anyway, the only way I could get in is as a participant in a 90-minute panel discussion on the future of journalism.
But this post isn't about the Nieman program or the panel. (Sylvia Poggioli was on the panel, though.) It's what I hear at panels like this. I've spent more of the past 10 days talking to journalists for other newspapers about our online experiment than I have at my own newspaper. Just don't tell my boss. (Robin, I took vacation time, I promise.)
What I've encountered are groups of curious, interested and, to some extent, frightened journalists. Some want to embrace blogs, but don't know how; others are intrigued, but think their editors will never go for it; and still others are dismissive to the point of nodding off, but that may just be my speaking style.
Every visit I get half a dozen of the same questions. This post if more for my benefit than yours. I'm going to ask and answer them here so that I can refer people who ask to this.
Q. Are the staff blogs edited?
A. No, and this flies in the face of every tenet editors cling to. We don't edit them for a couple reasons. First, every reporter will tell you that there is never any editor around when you need one. And the editors who are around have their hands filled editing stuff for the paper. I want to layer on more editing? Second, we want our bloggers to develop their own voice and personality. Sending the posts through a cadre of editors would pound that out of them. Third, we trust our staff to understand what to write and what to avoid. If they're in doubt, they ask. And, 99.9 percent of the time, our faith has been affirmed.
Q. I'm busy enough as it is. How do blogs affect productivity?
A. For the newspaper? Well, it hurts it. If a reporter is writing a blog, he's not doing something else. Usually that something else is getting a cup of coffee, shooting the breeze or surfing ebay; oh, wait, that's me. Notice that many posts come at all hours. Bloggers post when they have time and something to say. But we haven't detected any fall-off in news coverage in the newspaper.
Reporters' days are jam-packed with fact-gathering and writing. It is hard, hard work, and it's tough to get it right. So, your newspaper must decide that online is an important part of delivering journalism to citizens. Coming to the discussion with the default position that online is an "extra" means that you don't have time to blog or to do multi-media.
But you can do this if you come to the discussion thinking that the message is what's important, not the medium. Imagine linking from a blog to official documents from which you've drawn your reporting, showing readers exactly what led you to your conclusions. Imagine asking online readers to help hone your editorial opinion for the paper. Imagine running audio of news conferences and video of contentious public board meetings. We've done all those things. Understand that online is an extension of solid newspaper journalism -- just without the newspaper -- and you're home free.
Here's the real question you should be asking: Does it help citizens understand their community better and does it help them participate in self governance? (Hint: the answer is yes.)
Q. But talking to readers in the comment section, how do you have the time?
A. Do you answer your phone when it rings?
Q. Aren't your bloggers crossing that journalistic line in the sand separating objectivity and subjectivity?
A. Don't be thrown off by the national stories about opinionated bloggers taking down Trent Lott and Dan Rather. Not all blogs are positional. Our blogs span the spectrum of opinion, features and news. The editorial blogs are opinionated -- often highly so -- but they are editorials, after all. That's part of their purpose. The news blogs, such as the Chalkboard, Inside Scoop, Capital Beat, Biz Buzz, the Front Pew and Fast Forward espouse no points of view. The sports blogs are, well, like sports. Traditional journalistic principles remain intact.
Q. Are you worried that you have so little control over the comments?
A. No. I worry that the some commenters seem to have so little control over their comments. (Kidding. Just kidding.) Occasionally, I wonder why some visitors are mean-spirited or come with a chip on their shoulder. I'd like the conversation to be civil and constructive, but I don't always get what I want, and rarely is the real world always civil and constructive. But we continue to talk about ways to push commenters to be more accountable for their words.
Q. Don't you worry about libel?
A. I always worry about libel. Our bloggers know where that libel line is. We don't edit visitor comments on the advice of our lawyers.
Q. How are you going to make money?
A. You think I'm telling you?