Recently I did some math. Question: If there were three (3) blogs on Jan. 1, 2006 actively involved in Evansville, and there are nine (9) blogs two months later, at the current pace of development, how many blogs will there be on December 31, 2006?
I will leave the comment line open for my fellow bloggers to respond with the winning answer. Do you see the problem?
In a regular newspaper, there is a managing news editor, who distributes out the news stories each day. Yes, he may have worn a green eye shade in years gone by. Today, however, the temperment of bloggers does not lend itself to giving orders. You may have noticed. A very independent lot indeed.
As the senior blogger, not being wiser, but just older, I have some thoughts on a rational process of allocation of newsworthy stories that may be helpful and one that will take into consideration the assets of the various bloggers and their proclivities.
This is, of course, totally up to the bloggers and I am only opening all this up for a very vigorous discussion.
For example, we cannot have 100 bloggers covering our Evansville City Manager. That would be a nuisance. Clearly. On the other hand, since he does work 16 hours a day, comprehensive coverage would require more than just one blogger. Maybe 4 bloggers could cover four hour shifts. I am open to suggestions.
Some bloggers have special interests. For example, Ambulance Fugo, has a special announced interest in "The Night Owl." There. See how easy this is. He could handle the "Night Owl Beat." And, since he is also a lawyer, he could handle the Police Beat. After all, he does have "Ambulance" in his name. How easy is that.
The rest of the coverage is not so simple. I know there is a special blogger that has a love of Illinois. Maybe he wants the Illinois beat. Another blogger seems to like "Madonna Marketing," so maybe he wants the "Adult Entertainment" beat. After all, we all can't be everywhere.
As to other assignments, I am open to suggestion. Yes, Fred could be assigned to the "Mexico Beat" or we could call it the "Tex Mex" beat. We would need regular reports though. And more details.
O.K. that is just the beginning of the story. Bloggers are on a very steep growth curve. We need to calculate the best way to proceed. I am humbly open to your thoughts.
The comment line is open.
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I had the same nightmare except that I had it in 1982 and it was Denver on a Sunday night.
ReplyDeleteI think you are more likely to see a few mainstay, continually updated blogs and a wide range of peripheral blogs that are more sporadic. A few might offer true news items while the majority will be editorial in nature.
ReplyDeleteThe Observer fills the role for providing news with some, but not much (in blog terms), editorial. It is updated constantly and gives the facts from which many of us feed and expand upon. I am extremely grateful for your work (though not for the pop-ups that like to crash IE) and have no desire to replicate it in any fashion - the job is already being done quite well.
Others - Grumps, Fugo, maybe mine, are much more editorial in nature. For me, they serve to compliment, enhance, and enrich what you have to offer.
Want to read over the weekend what issues and meetings are coming up in Evansville? Check out the Observer, cause the print media falls woefully short!
Want to add some spice, a picture of Loverboy, and maybe see what Ardie is cooking up at the Night Owl? Ambulance Fugo for the win!
Want to add a feel for state and national politics with a local liberal feel? Grumps has it covered.
Want the above, but leaning to the right? Slammer's your local expert!
Want a blog that tries to bring respect back to the fence sitters in the political spectrum and only updates every once in a great while? Hmmm….guess that's me.
Frankly - I love the direction this medium is going locally!
Walton, I am to the right but no expert I just like to laugh. Occasionaly I will throw in a real story but for the most part it is humor I get from customers and friends.
ReplyDeleteI will work on eliminating the pop ups. I accidently added some code and have had a difficulty finding where I put it. It will be fixed shortly. Thanks for pointing it out.
ReplyDelete