Local Blogs & Seattle Journalism
by Matt on Jan 30, 2009 in Industry
Whether you’re in the Seattle area or not, if your local blog is news-based, this should be of interest.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one of two daily newspapers in the city, is on the selling block. And if it doesn’t sell, it may switch to an online-only operation or shut down altogether. The city council had a meeting earlier this week to talk about what’s going on, and several Seattle bloggers were invited to speak, too. (Seattle is thriving with lots of neighborhood blogs.)
It sounds like some of the council members were in the dark about what local blogs are all about. Says Cory Bergman:
WestSeattleBlog and many other neighborhood news sites in Seattle, like the site run by my wife and me, MyBallard.com, feature straightforward, issue-driven original coverage. But we also cover new restaurants, quirky neighborhood events and the occasional lost pet. We have a lower threshold of news, covering the small stuff in a couple lines. That’s why people come to us: for down-the-street content they can’t get anywhere else, because the newspapers and TV stations aren’t covering it.
That paragraph right there is pretty much a mission statement for any news-based hyperlocal blog, isn’t it?
What’s surprising to me about the general ignorance from city officials about local blogging is that, barely a month ago, Seattle’s own web site promoted neighborhood blogs as a primary information source ahead of the newspapers and TV stations. Someone should’ve mentioned that during the meeting this week.
Interesting times we live in, especially those of you running news-based local blogs.
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