Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Meanwhile, local news is reported by civilians in New Jersey. 3:01:04 PM    comment []

Lex Alexander's memo on the N&R's web strategy is up at his work blog. Also available as a Word document. This is big, people. Dude is suggesting all kinds of good stuff, including links to competitors from the paper's branded site, assigning bloggers to community stories, and, well, before we get into all the details, let's listen to Lex for a minute: Our audience is moving from print to online, and some of the wealthier and better-educated people among our audience are leading the charge and taking ad revenue with them. If we are to survive as a business dedicated to producing quality local news, information and dialogue, we need to move, too -- with people and resources. But that means more than just re-creating the print product online. It means understanding the culture of the Internet, and of blogging in particular, and understanding how we can work on and with the Internet (i.e., with users of that medium) to expand the quantity and quality of the local news, information and dialogue we provide. It also means understanding that the very definition of news, or journalism, is changing... Lex gets it, and John Robinson gets that he gets it. Oh frabjous day. 2:59:08 PM    comment []

Greensboro City Council member Don Vaughan and his wife, former Council member Nancy Mincello Vaughan, hope to have a blog up by the end of this month. Nancy knows a bit about grassroots politics. This could be really good. And no, this is not the local poli-blog I've been hinting about. My advice, to them and anyone else considering a blog: Read other blogs. Understand the time it takes to write a good one. Post regularly -- you don't have to be obsessive, just consistent. Have something to say. Speak in your own voice. Be careful, remember Google is forever; blog in haste and repent at leisure. Have fun. 2:40:41 PM    comment []

If this be global warming, let's make the most of it: picnic lunch with Lisa and Luna in Fisher Park on a balmy January afternoon. I have such strong childhood memories of that park from my kindergarten days at First Pres -- the stone bridges and the creek, the paths and the trees...and today, leftover tiramisu. 2:30:29 PM    comment []

Hoggard spoke with Greensboro mayor pro tem Yvonne Johnson about her weblog. My guess is we will have several elected officals blogging within a few months. I'm working with one offline. I spoke briefly to councilwoman Claudette Burroughs-White about a blog before Christmas, she seemed interested, I'll follow up on that. If they're in, can Robbie Perkins stay out? Meanwhile, Hoggard is working on school board member Kris Cooke. Mike Winstead would be a good choice on the county commissioner board. And of course, Thigpen has been blazing the trail for a while now. Blogs feed each other. Greensboro developed a strong local network of blogs, the paper got interested (new N&R blogs launch soon), pols are catching on... ...and other media figures are bound to figure out the possibilities --  I heard Brad Krantz say he's interested....where are you, Scott Yost? 8:19:05 AM    comment []

Chris Anderson's Long Tail weblog. 8:03:29 AM    comment []

Krugman: "(T)he claim that Social Security faces an imminent crisis...is simply false. Yet much of the press has reported the falsehood as a fact." The Democrats became a majority party by creating a social safety net for all Americans. Maybe they can reclaim that role by defending what they built. 7:58:19 AM    comment []