Can newspapers do blogs right? Answers from Xeni Jardin, Chris Nolan, Nick Denton et al.

Tags: newspapers, Media, Journalism, News, Blogs, Blogging 

What do you think? Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review, wants to know, now that "two of America's leading newspapers have watched staff-written blogs blow up in their faces."

Here are my answers below, also quoted in his story, "Can newspapers do blogs right?" Read Niles' entire piece to see the excellent insights from Xeni Jardin, Chris Nolan and Bob Cauthorn (he's absolutely right about The Guardian). I don't at all agree with Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker.com.

Niles sets the stage:

"First, Ben Domenech left Washingtonpost.com after outside bloggers uncovered numerous examples of plagiarism in his past work. And last week, the Los Angeles Times suspended the blog of Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Hiltzik ( interviewed by OJR just before the scandal broke) after he was discovered to have posted comments under false identities on his and other blogs.-- he asked a number of people with experience in print, radio, television, newspaper and/or social media to sound off on the question, "Can newspapers do blogs right?" "

When Robert asked me these questions, I responded via email (I've labeled this version by name):

Robert: The question is: Can newspapers do blogs right?

Lisa: Of course they can. Blog, wiki and audio technologies are just like the printing presses used to publish newspapers --- tools that a broad spectrum of thinkers are using to get their word out. Period. Just like in traditional newspapering, some of these blogs, wikis and podcasts are superior, others are bird-cage liner. 

Robert: If not, why not?

Lisa: I think you need to also ask, "If so, why so?"

Newspaper blogs that work are carefully planned, openly executed exercises in public conversation about news and information. These blogs allow comments and turn into 24/7 townhall meetings about everything from the headlines to how well the paper is doing to deliver and discuss the news. Newspapers that blog well embrace the community and use the blogs as an extension of their op-ed pages. There are dozens of examples, from MSNBC's oft-ignored Bloggermann (one of the national media's best blogs) to brave local daily sites taking important baby steps such as Madison.com and Fresnobee.com

Newspaper blogs that don't work tend to dismss blogs as, in Alex S. Jones' famous words, the sizzle rather than the steak -- as useless chatter rather than as an extension of the newspaper's journalism that deserves the same care, feeding and standards of accuracy and ethical behavior. How can newspapers expect to survive if they keep mooning their readers like this? Answer: They won't.

Robert: And  if they can, what more do newspapers need to do to avoid Domenench/Hiltzik meltdowns?

Lisa: Same song, different medium -- these problems of failing standards of accuracy and ethical behavior among the nation's leading newspapers are not limited to blogs. As someone who grew up on newspapers and will never give them up, the past five years have been agonizing to behold, from Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg, to Ben Domenech and Michael Hiltzik. America's newspapers have the opportunity to leverage blogs as credibility building exercises -- but the first thing we need to do is to stop architecting our own demise. To avoid meltdowns like this, newspapers need to do exactly what exceptional blogs do: For God's sake, assume the position of the reader and behave accordingly. Readers want to know what they're getting, who they're getting it from and how so that they can trust their sources -- that's you. Here are two easy steps:

• Step 1: No more rookie maneuvers.

Call in a blog expert with a journalism background and have this outside person walk you through community scenarios to test what your newsroom (and management) can tolerate and what you cannot. If nudie pictures on your wiki are a no-no, you have a choice to make: (a) Don't publish the wiki, and/or (b) Don't publish the wiki without human and/or technical filters. But you have to have someone advising you who knows how wikis behave. Or, say, if you don't want a blogger to violate fair use acts on this blog or in previous blogs, (a) Check out their personal records, and  (b) Say so and sign them to agreement that says so.

• Step 2:

Repeat Step 1 in an open conversation with your readers and ask them to behave according to these guidelines too. Publish your community guidelines and ask readers what they want and why. Edit your guidelines accordingly.

• Step 3: Integrate blogs into the newsroom's efforts.

Starting slow is fine - but the best blogs are a team effort. In a newsroom unused to community conversation, to groaning when readers write and call-in, is to make it part of the journo's job description -- and their editor's too. That means a conversation with the community via blogging (including Steps 1 and 2) needs to be embraced by the people at the top of the newsroom hierarchy.

So tell me -- what did I get right? Get wrong? I look forward to your thoughts and improvements.

Comments

[Belinda]

I have huge respect for the blog run by my state's only alternative to the ultra-conservative daily paper. The Arkansas Times is a feisty, independent weekly that keeps its finger on the pulse of not only our state, but the nation and the world so well that you could be from anywhere and stay up on things just by frequenting their blog.

Arkansas Times Blog

[R2C2H2 Tha Artivist]

Dear Lisa,
Thanks for the wonderful article..I truly enjoyed your responses to Mr. Niles questions...The traditional media and those who represent them have always been slow to catch onto to new and innovative trends simply out of fear for change...For example it took MTV years before they started to embrace and show rap and Hip Hop one of the hottest cultural, financial and commercial commodities going...It took some years for the art world to accept photography as another alternative form of artistic expression and not just as some type of permanent replacement for painting...Hopefully traditional newspaper outlets will slowly but surely continue to see the true benefits of blogging and servicing an evergrowing internet community who primarily gets most of their news from the internet and/or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report...I just recently started my own alternative news blog known as W.E. A.L.L. B.E. http://www.weallbe.blogspot.com last month...I must say that I now have a new found respect for people who have been doing this thing longer than I have and the sometimes unjustified (as well as justified) scrutiny and indifference one faces when bringing the masses another or alternative well informed perspective...Thanks for being a muse!!! Keep doing your thing Lisa and much continued success!!!
An admirer,
R2C2H2 Tha Artivist
p.s.
http://www.ther2c2h2.com
http://www.jazzlieutenant.blogspot.com
http://www.weallbe.blogspot.com
http://www.soldierboygrip.blogspot.com
http://www.thaartivist.blogspot.com

[Busy Mom]

Sure they can, but, like you said, it takes some planning, and, commitment. There are several television stations and newspapers here in Tennessee that are doing it.

I'm even writing for one newspaper blog at the moment:No Silence Here

[Lisa Stone]

Right on - didn't know you were writing this, Busy!

[Lisa Stone]

Belinda - thanks for the link! I hadn't seen this blog.