News-Record.com

I visited Mr. Johnson's Blog and posted the message below, but I've copied it here since it appears that you are still setting up the "Thinking Out Loud" Blog. Here's what is also posted at that Blog:

I look very forward to the official debut of "Thinking Out Loud."

I am very curious to see how it begins and how it evolves.

I think many others will be drawn to it as well.

Blogging is still new for a lot of people, and by extension rather abstract.

I'm a definite newcomer; my only experience with blogging is visiting other people's Blogs; I don't have a Blog myself. (Just using the term itself becomes rather addictive, whether you're doing it or not.)

I have started reading articles in the newspaper, as well as postings within the "News & Record" Blogs, but I know I didn't pay much attention to earlier articles on the subject. I don't know excactly how detailed they might have been in explaining how Blogging works.

But since I missed earlier articles, and since other people may have also, follow-up explanation guides might be a good thing to offer.

One thing that the "News & Record" might consider doing in its editorial pages or within another section of the newspaper is a step-by-step mapping out of how Blogging works.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the pages you devoted not too long ago to outlining how the editorial pages are structured and who and what goes into producing those pages.

You might include sample Blog posts that highlight how thoughts and ideas are exchanged.

I've seen print advertisements for your Blogs, but I'm not sure if a lot of people really understand what's being advertised.

One of the Sports Bloggers (Jim Young) even wrote specifically, "Don't be shy," and within that posting, pointed out how to post.

A "How To Blog" section in the "News & Record" might be a service that you could provide, a way to make Blogging less abstract, a tool for drawing more people to your own Blogs.

(At least one person, I believe, has pointed out that Blogs can function somewhat like the "Beep" section of the "Rhino Times"--as popular as that has been over the years, it seems like Blogging with the "News & Record" could become just as popular (maybe more so once people realize that Blogging allows you to control how your messages come out, instead of having to depend on transcriptions of voice messages).

I may have the name wrong, but I believe it's Tim Rickard who does at least some of the artwork for the "News & Record." He might create a cartoon-like depiction of how Blogging occurs. A step-by-step written guide could accompany it, as well as an article focusing on How Blogging Works (as opposed to an article about how it's becoming more popular).

You might even create incentives for inventive postings, a way to draw more people in until they're hooked.

(I was reflecting on how I became a newspaper reader. I know it began either with the comics or the sports pages. The editorial pages are definitely my favorite section now, which is why I'm particularly excited that you are creating the "Thinking Out Loud" Blog. But in thinking about my initiation to newspapers through comics, it just popped into my head that you might want to create a "Comics" Blog. I'm not a regular comics reader any more, but I've sensed from some of what your staff has written that the comics inspire some of your readers' most passionate feelings toward your newspaper, positive or negative, depending on whether or not you keep people's favorite comics in your comics section. A Blog could allow an ongoing discussion of people's responses to comics, as well as debates about the value of individual comics.)

When do you plan for "Thinking Out Loud" to debut officially?

I'll take your last question first: "Thinking Out Loud" will debut when Allen and the tech folks agree that they're ready, which could be as early as today but almost certainly will be sometime this week.

Regarding instructions in blogging: I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I can see how it would be useful. On the other, blogging isn't ALL we're doing. It's one tool among many in transforming the N&R from a legacy news organization -- we write, you read -- to an open-source news organization, in which we AND you write and read. And to focus too much on blogging might keep some folks from grasping the larger point.

But it's an interesting suggestion. Let us think about it.