This post by Glenn Reynolds on instapundit.com, which is itself a response to Editor and Publisher magazine, answers the question Do Bloggers Need Editors? with a a very dismissinve "no" in the form of a declaration that bloggers are self-sufficient.
I think that's very short-sighted. First of all, there are many forms of editing, from simple copy-editing (how many blogs do you see with unintentional spelling and grammatical errors? I see a lot) through content editing to topic influence. We should not be dismissive of the value of editors, or at least good ones. I think it's worth pointing out, though, that the tables are in a sense turned, because bloggers could pick their editors instead of the other way around (editors hiring journalists).
I think if we look harder at this, though, we'd find that as journalism embraces blogging, there probably is a fair amount of editing going on already, especially at journaists' blogs and blogs hosted at press web sites. Is Dan Gillmor's editor in the loop on his blog? A very interesting question.
I don't think there's a general right or wrong answer -- the writing skills of bloggers cover the entire spectrum from outstanding to terrible. I do think, though, that we should be wary of making broad statements such as "bloggers are self-sufficient." It does smack of elitism. Journalism is learning and adopting much from bloggers. Likewise, we should expect that blogging can learn and adopt much from journalists.
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