News-Record.com

I was delighted with the turnout we had for last night's discussion about citizen journalism, particularly inasmuch as I inadvertently scheduled it opposite a City Council meeting at which some key budget issues were to be thrashed out.

I didn't call the roll, but if I recall correctly, attendees included:

• Sue


• Sean Coon


• David Hoggard


• Bruce Burch


• Cara Michele


• Jon Lowder (from Winston-Salem), who also brought his lovely and talented but (as far as I know) nonblogging wife, Celeste.


• Jill Williams, executive director of the now-disbanded Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission


• Ndesanjo Macha


• Tony Ledford, a nonblogging but frequent commenter at some N&R blogs, particularly Letters to the Editor


• N&R courts reporter Eric Collins, who'll be blogging eventually.

(I'm forgetting some people, I know -- I'm sorry.)

I'd love to be able to give you a neat, chronological summary of the discussion. (Even more, I'd love to be able to link to streaming video and/or a podcast.) But because I was participant as well as observer, and my note-taking was haphazard when I took notes at all, I can't do that.

Some points, though, in no special order:

-- We frequently get asked why we don't do X, or whether we have ever thought about doing Y. Regarding Y, the answer is "probably." But the N&R's news department has an appetite for doing stuff online that exceeds available resources. Our department relies on people in another division, News & Record Interactive, who must divide their time between revenue-generating sites for outside clients and news content for our Web sites (and guess which is the higher priority). Only a few of those folks even work with the News Department, and only one (last I checked) worked directly on the kinds of things that make interacting with the site fun and worthwhile. These folks are very talented and work some very long hours, but there's only so much they can do. One way or another, we're going to have to get more programmers for News, and Editor John Robinson knows that.

-- We're struggling, with a very limited promotional budget or other resources, to reach out to people in the community who might want to join with us in reporting stories for print and online. We believe such people exist, even if they're busy with full-time jobs and families and lives. We want to reach out to them, to remove as many barriers as possible that might keep them from participating with us to the extent that they want to. We're open to any and all ideas, although ideas that don't involve a lot of money or technical expertise (see previous point) stand the best chance of being tested first.

-- We understand we need to reach people where they are, even if where they are is offline. One participant, and I'm sorry I don't recall who it was, suggested we put loaner laptops in the hands of people who don't even own computers and ask them to blog for us for, say, a month at a time. A variation on that suggestion: we loan digital audio recorders to people, then turn what they say into podcasts.

-- At least some people are interested in pulling together a group of people who would review and critique local news coverage by various outlets, along the lines of what was recommended in the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission's recent report.

A number of people had other suggestions for ways in which the N&R might enhance its Web site and/or improve its transparency and interactivity. I won't list them all here, but I took notes and am forwarding them to the appropriate people here in the building.

Finally, a number of people asked that we meet again soon. I'm looking for July dates now and will post here when we've got a date set. I will definitely try to avoid scheduling opposite City Council meetings, as I inadvertently did last night, as well.

If you were there, feel free to jump in below with anything you think I overlooked.