When done correctly, competition can be a wonderful thing. It makes us better, sharper, more responsive. That theory works in autos, in newspapers, and—yes—even in blogville.
With that in mind, a couple of quick announcements on some blog news happening at the Journal. We have some new offerings that will be competing with everybody’s undying and unwavering loyalty of the Otterblog. First, Monte Mitchell, our reporter in our Northwest bureau, will be running a blog for the next few days about Merlefest, the annual Wilkes County roots music festival that is this weekend. Look for it on JournalNow beginning tomorrow and through the weekend.
Second, we’ll be starting a blog for Kernersville and Eastern Forsyth County as part of our Kernersville Journal. Melissa Hall, one of our reporters in downtown K’ville bureau, will take the lead on that. It will hit the net for the edition of May 4. While the idea of all blogs is to have a dialogue with the community, we’ll be pushing this concept a little more forcefully in our K’ville blog.
A lot of blogging by the dreaded MSM, i.e. the Journal, is an experiment in new ways of doing things. Balancing tradition and innovation is tricky stuff. But take a look at these when they launch and let me know what you think. Your feedback is important.
WORD WATCH: Newsweek has a cover story on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, and like everybody else the most loaded word in the whole article is swagger. An interesting word. Norwegian in its origin, says my Webster’s dictionary, from svagra, to sway. You can search North Carolina’s statutes for a long time, and you still won’t find swagger in the criminal code. Court of public opinion is a different matter.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
My comment in advance. I have no idea how many hits you get per day on this blog. Maybe it’s insanely popular. But you don’t have enough dialogue, which is what you said you wanted, to warrant another blog yet. Why not multiple authors on the same blog? I’m trying to stick with you, Ken, but some day you’ve gotta loosen up and write something “breathless"--soemthing for folks to respond to.
Also, consistency matters. Sometimes you get your blog up by ten, other days not ‘til three. Is it imporatnt, or not?
Thanks for your input. Putting out a paper is often like drinking from a firehose. I try to post by noon every day, but things happen. I’m not going to tell a reporter I can’t talk to her about breaking news because I have to post my blog. Not an excuse. Just reality.
As for breathless, there’s enough breathlessness out there in the world. That’s not me. I’m sorry. I write about what I know about, which is the intersection of journalism, writing, ethics, public policy and technology. And a little food and history, when appropriate.
That said, I will keep trying to “loosen up” and stoke the flames of dialogue.
Helen, I’m writing from a compromised position (I work here), but I read a decent number of blogs and I haven’t found time-of-posting an influence in any of them. Do you use Bloglines? It’s handy for handling blog content, and eliminates the need to check multiple sites multiple times a day to find if there’s anything new.
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Joe Murphy
Senior Content Producer
JournalNow.com
And as a real blogger, you visit the blogs of other bloggers. You leave comments. You “build community.” I don’t care how demanding your job is. We all have jobs. You wanna be blogger, be a blogger! NOTE: There is no such things as a professional blogger. You aren’t yopur editorship. You’re just one of the guys. Have I not left you about thirty comments, while you’ve left me nary a one?
But seriously, of course, you are busy and must give time to a reporter first, just as a mother must put her children before blogging. Thus, I reiterate: Having more than one writer for the same blog is not a silly idea. If everyone at the Journal’s busy at the same time, something big is coming down and we’d better evacuate the city not worry about blogs.
The previous comment was for Ken, not Joe!
Joe, I don’t use Bloglines but will check it out. I don’t think time of day is a big issue, but it is more important on this blog than on some because there are no posts on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, Monday’s post needs to be early (just when all the action in the newsroom probaly takes place) to build readership. Building readership is one of the goals of the Journal’s blog(s), right?
I really don’t want to get in an argument about this. There’s no one right way to do a blog. And we learn and hopefully improve as we go. Which is what I am trying to do.
Sorry Ken. No argument intended.
Let’s start this one over.
Hi Ken,
I found an interesting article published in February of this year by The Nation, (see http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060313/greider2) entitled “Olympic Swagger,” in which the word was use in much the same way as it was in the article about the Duke Lacrosse Team. The author states that he is “embarrassed” by the attitude of American athletes, so I guess the word swagger has some negative connotations, that aren’t illegal but aren’t attractive either. Bring “swagger” to an ugly bi-racial incident, and the sparks are bound to fly.
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