Category: news

Blogging from CASE District VI: ‘bloggers as journalists, journalists as bloggers’

I tried this idea out at the CASE Conference in Philadelphia I co-chaired back in September: get some journalists who blog in a room with bloggers and let them talk about how the two disciplines — old-school reporting and new-media blogging — are merging and blurring the lines of distinction between news, opinion, and other aspects of journalism. It worked so well then (with a mere two journalist-bloggers) that we decided to try it again here at the CASE District VI Conference in Kansas City. And just for fun, we added another kind of blogger into the mix: someone who writes a blog for a non-profit organization. Our panelists were:

The three had a lot of good information to share about the nature of their blogging, the future of social networking and new media, the challenges facing traditional media such as newspapers, and the benefits of blogging for institutions such as Kauffman. Check out their three very different blogs to get a sense of how blogs are being used to address various issues — whether it’s to promote programs, entertain readers or help political junkies get their fix.

While you’re at it, check out UMR’s research blog, Visions. While I was in a panel discussion at 8:30 this morning, three of our staffers were presenting to a packed room about their experience with converting Visions from a quarterly research webzine to a more frequently updated blog. They even had buttons and magnets to give away.

Angst in the Philly Inquirer newsroom

One of the great daily newspapers, the Philadelphia Inquirer, has become the latest big-city old paper to lay off news staff. The Inquirer will trim about 20 percent of its news staff as it reinvents itself as “a local and regional publication with a growing online presence anchored by a redesigned Web site.”

The Inquirer’s resident blogger, Dan Rubin (whom I met last fall at the CASE conference in Philadelphia), describes the somber mood in the newsroom.

Staff meetings are scheduled for this afternoon. I’m guessing we’ll talk about individual sacrifice, the needs of the group. The paper will take a look, again, at what it needs to do in this crushing time, and many people will be asked to change jobs, to fill in the many holes. (Update: Editor Bill Marimow described this as “the worst day in the history of the Philadelphia Inquirer.”)

I’ve said to a couple of glum-looking people today that there’s part of me that’s envious. I know it sounds hollow, coming from someone who has seniority. But this will be saving some people from heartache later, when it’s harder to pull up stakes. This is a good time to be looking for other ways to use those peculiar skills they put to work here.

I told a young writer who was wondering how she’d manage that the amazing thing is, I’ve never run into anyone who left the newspaper who didn’t look younger and healthier the next time I saw them.

A harbinger of things to come for old media?

Related: Will the old media survive?