It’s not always bloggers vs. journalists. Sometimes it’s win-win.
Howard Owens, Director of New Media at the Ventura County Star, a Scripps paper (and award-winning newspaper web site) posted this note recently to Online News forum(excerpt):
“We see blogs, forums, photo blogs and other forms of citizen journalism as a significant part of the online news world. Our readers want to be part of the process of sharing the news and shaping the news. Technology is giving them the tools to do it, and as Dan Gillmor has pointed out, our readers often know more than we do. They can also be more places than we can. And, they also know what interests them and what news they want in ways that traditional, top-down journalism might miss. We need to give appropriate attention to this growing facet of our business.”
To that end, the Ventura County Star created a position for an editor whose job it is to “guide them in the world of ‘journalism as a conversation.’ ”
Owens says ” Our current plan is to grow organically in this area rather than push any one big initiative. We have blogs, forums and photo blogs now. We will work to grow these and help promote citizen journalism in Ventura County.”