"We already have a web page devoted to green energy, which we would likely reconfigure…"

The Beat: Green Technology. Clean energy and clean technology in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Reporter: Matt Nauman, staff writer for the Mercury News. 

Description: From Katharine Fong, Deputy Managing Editor, Convergence and New Media, writes ….

The Mercury News is excited to join the NewsAssignment.net project.
We believe that reporter Matt Nauman’s beat – green technology – fits
perfectly with the project’s objectives. Silicon Valley is a hub of
commercial and civic activity around "green" energy technology, from
solar and wind power to bio-fuels and sustainable development, and the
social networking movement has deep roots here. Our reporter can tap
into this engaged, local base of knowledge and innovation as well as
cultivate contacts and sources worldwide who can help shape the issues
and discussion and inform our audience.

Matt is a veteran reporter and experienced blogger, but he is
relatively new to the green tech beat, and has been busy ramping up.
It’s therefore an ideal time to start beat-blogging with a social
network, and we’d come out of the gate fast with a blog. We already
have a web page devoted to green energy (see
http://www.siliconvalley.com/greenenergy), which we would likely
reconfigure for the beat-blogging. The page contains Matt’s stories and
quite a bit of additional content and data, making it an automatic
resource and clearinghouse for news and information about green tech.
The blog, of course, is where Matt would talk about ideas and the
people behind them, deconstruct issues, ask questions and get input
from readers. The transparency in the thinking and discussion would
extend to the stories, video, radio and other content generated by Matt
and his network.

Matt would also broaden his base beyond the Mercury News’ site and
print products by, for example, starting a network on Facebook and/or
other social networking sites. This would allow for a more developed
forum and less hierarachy in format and presentation, hopefully
encouraging deeper connections between people. Matt would host the
network, recruit people into it, post news and other content, and
facilitate discussion and contact. We would also seek out partners to
distribute and syndicate any of the multimedia programming that we do.

The Mercury News is in the midst of revamping how we cover, serve
and interact with our communities. Much of our strategy includes new
ways to involve our audience in producing content that is useful and
relevant, and connects them with what they want to know and do. Beat
reporting, or beat blogging, with a social network is a natural
extension of this endeavor, especially in the increasingly important
and high-profile topic of green tech.

The Mercury News Team: (1 Katharine Fong, Deputy Managing Editor, Convergence and New Media
(2 Rebecca Salner, Executive Business Editor, and Steve Trousdale, Deputy Business Editor
(3 Matt Nauman, staff writer San Jose Mercury News

More Matt Nauman writes ….

I’ve been at the Merc for 20 years, the last 15 or
so as the auto editor. In that position, I had a blog, did video test
drives, tried online reader chats for a few months and helped
administer the Drive home page. (Oh, and I wrote a few thousands
stories for print over the years, too.)

That all went away in September, as our continued cuts here moved
the auto section to advertising. That’s when I started on this new
beat, which includes covering our big utility, some regulatory
agencies, a big energy company based here and the like.

Green Tech is the beat, and it touches the readers where they work,
where they shop, where they have fun. It encompasses where Silicon
Valley is moving, where its capital is being invested, where its
engineers are being hired. It includes not only Pacific Gas &
Electric and regulatory agencies, but start-ups that push solar cells,
new battery companies and more.