Guam, blogs and newspapers

Jeff Jarvis, as astute observer of news media trends, is a regular read. He recently had a post about the New Jersey Star-Ledger and a forum it's created for local bloggers.

What the Star-Ledger is doing is something other newspapers should do as well, including on Guam. I responded to his post with this comment:

There is an ocean of stubborn, fearful and reluctant editors operating in newsrooms who see bloggers as a primary threat to their jobs. And if this is the only example of a newspaper doing anything like this, then it shows how rooted this fear is.

Editors probably have no idea just how many voices are at work in their communities — because it can be very difficult to map and locate them.

One problem, the main one, is that most editors are looking for bloggers who are writing about the same things covered by their reporters, and focus on those bloggers who make city desk sense: neighborhood writers; politics, real estate, crime, issue-of-the-day.

But most local bloggers write about the experience of living in a community, it is the work of people who, often enough, seek to understand and not just report. These writers are off the newsroom radars. Newspapers loose out their perspective because their definition of what constitutes community journalism is too narrow.

Many local blogging communities have created outlets for these writers. The Newark newspaper, from my perspective as a local blogger, is breaking no ground except, perhaps, in its industry.

Bloggers in my city, DC, have many outlets for reaching broad audiences independent of local newspapers.

This lack of attention by newspapers — to their own blogging readers — is one of the reasons why dynamic blogging communities are tuning newspapers out.

The Daily Newarker, I suspect, will gain traffic, loyalty and new readers by embracing some of its local talent. I wish them success because their city truly needs what these writers can bring.