Comments on: Can bloggers fill in the gaps of the dieing newspaper? http://www.webpublishingblog.com/can-bloggers-fill-in-the-gaps-of-the-dieing-newspaper.htm Internet publishing, a multidisciplinary approach. Thu, 05 May 2011 08:47:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Ken Doctor http://www.webpublishingblog.com/can-bloggers-fill-in-the-gaps-of-the-dieing-newspaper.htm/comment-page-1#comment-634 Ken Doctor Sun, 05 Mar 2006 04:56:57 +0000 http://www.webpublishingblog.com/can-bloggers-fill-in-the-gaps-of-the-dieing-newspaper.htm#comment-634 Andrew: Thanks for kind words. Next week, the Knight Ridder board is formally accepting bids. Since I wrote the above item, I've had numerous conversations about the reporting/blogger world. In essence, here's an issue we all deal with, I believe: In-depth reporting requires much time, and thus, funding. That's particularly true of investigative reporting, but also of much local reporting, covering government beats, often boring work, but work that often reminds us all of the watchdog function of the press in our struggling democracy. So, brand is an interesting issue -- and consumer sorting of brand (by blog aggregator, by government agencies???) -- will be an issue. The deeper one though is funding, paying people to go out every day to find out information, only some of which is worth writing about. The blog overlap is journalism is easiest to see in opinion, whether traditional metro column-like or in the arts or in sports. And that's a great deal of what's in a newspaper. But I'm worried about who is going to pay for the basic reporting that's an essential building block of what we know, what facts from which we start our dialogues. Ken Andrew: Thanks for kind words. Next week, the Knight Ridder board is formally accepting bids. Since I wrote the above item, I’ve had numerous conversations about the reporting/blogger world.

In essence, here’s an issue we all deal with, I believe: In-depth reporting requires much time, and thus, funding. That’s particularly true of investigative reporting, but also of much local reporting, covering government beats, often boring work, but work that often reminds us all of the watchdog function of the press in our struggling democracy.

So, brand is an interesting issue — and consumer sorting of brand (by blog aggregator, by government agencies???) — will be an issue.

The deeper one though is funding, paying people to go out every day to find out information, only some of which is worth writing about.

The blog overlap is journalism is easiest to see in opinion, whether traditional metro column-like or in the arts or in sports. And that’s a great deal of what’s in a newspaper.

But I’m worried about who is going to pay for the basic reporting that’s an essential building block of what we know, what facts from which we start our dialogues.

Ken

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