Kansas City Star on Avila’s blogger-in-chief

The Kansas City Star’s education reporter, Mara Rose Williams, recently wrote about college presidents who blog and homed in on the blog of Avila University President Ronald A. Slepitza. The prez “cozies up to his office computer” on a weekly basis to post his thoughts “about life, death and spirituality,” Williams writes. Said Slepitza: “I try to talk a little about myself, the university and about matters I hope will be of interest to the reader.”

It appears his online dialogues are attracting an audience. Most of them, like one titled “Rummaging for God in the Midst of a Busy Day,” have garnered what he called a “powerful response” from readers.

In another blog posting, Slepitza talks about ingredients in a chili dip made with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and a can of chili to segue into a conversation about innovation.

Slepitza’s posts are thoughtful and insightful. But he remains an anomaly — in Kansas City and across the nation.

What’s interesting to me about this story, from a PR and marketing perspective, is Bob Johnson‘s comment that, in general, “PR people tend not to like unscripted messages going out from key university people.” Then Williams finds a PR person to say that monitoring the blogosphere “would be ‘just another chore’ for the public relations office, which already is short on time to keep up with goings-on at the university.”

Just another chore?

Until we change our attitudes about online conversations, we’re going to continue to struggle with new media.

P.S. – Johnson blogged about his conversation with Williams before the story hit. I’m not sure I would have done that. To me, it shows a lack of respect for the journalist who contacted you as a source for a story — not so you could blab about it on your own blog and “scoop” the reporter. Maybe journalists need to better understand this new playing field as well.