Creating the perfect beatblog
A cutting edge beatblog, and the sites of highest interest to Beatblogging.org, are those using the two-way, social part of the Web, to cover a beat in a networked or user-assisted way.
Here we find information and newsy items, advice and ideas regularly flowing in from readers as the blog becomes a platform for extending the network of the beat outward until hundreds and thousands of people are helping to… cover the beat.
But — truth be told — there aren’t any beatblogs that get it all right. Mostly, this is due to lack of time and resources. Where one blogger spends time on original content, another blogger spends time on two-way communication with readers/commenters.
So, let’s say that it were possible to create the perfect beatblog; that time and resources aren’t an issue. And let’s say that we created this blog using only elements from existing blogs. In other words, a mash-up.
What would this blog look like?
The Creators
First of all, it’s important to note that a beatblog does not have to be run by a large media company. It can be created by a single person or a team, a pro or an amateur journalist. The idea is that the creator(s) whoever he/she/they are, are people who care deeply about regularly covering a beat and focusing on content that is not only valuable to their readers who are interested in the niche topic, but also focus on content that their readers suggest be written or covered.
In other words, the creators “get it” — all of it. From the look and feel of their blog, to its subject to their linking ethics and social media leverage — they focus on truly becoming a “beatblog” and not just a blog that “happens to have a beat.”
They would have the reporting drive of Kent Fischer, the networking savviness of Monica Guzman, the friendly, open-mindedness of Brian Stelter and the entrepreneurial spirit of Daniel Victor.
The Design
It must be stressed that design goes a long way online. As much as “Content is King,” design can really change the way readers approach your blog and interact with it.
A beatblog that really hit the nail on the head in terms of theme and design is GothamSchools. It’s a blog focused on breaking news and analysis of the NYC public schools. If you take a look at the site, you’ll find that it’s header is properly tied in with the subject — it has the New York City skyline and the image of a public school.
The rest of the page is very minimalist and straightforward, designed to look like the pages of a notebook. What is great about GothamSchools is that there is no way anyone can get lost or confused with where to find more information, how to contact the creators or what the site is about. Everything is neatly organized and tagged, exactly the way beatblogs should be.
I’ve stressed before that many beat blogs fail to provide enough transparency and contact information on their pages. This is because so many of the best beatbloggers are attached to legacy news organizations, and thus, their pages are not stand-alone sites but rather limbs of the main news site.
I think the proper way to run a beatblog is to make it it’s own Web site, with it’s own contact information and “about” page. It shouldn’t just be a link from a drop-down menu on a news organization. Of course, if it’s affiliated it should have the proper attributions and links, etc.
But making the beatblog it’s own page can make it more comfortable for readers, easier to find and easier to interact with. Just as a news site’s Twitter feed or Facebook page is separate from the organization and more personalized, so should a beatblog be.
The Strategy/Execution
Properly running a beatblog can be difficult if there are time constraints or not enough helping hands. For example, Pharmalot, a beatblog run by journalist Ed Silverman about the pharmaceutical industry, featured really good daily journalism and link journalism. It was a beatblog that doggedly covered its niche.
But it would have been much stronger if had the same community building as the DISD Blog. Pharmalot might have been the best beatblog from just a pure content perspectiveve, but it always lagged in the two-way communication department. Silverman spent so much time delivering incredible content by himself that he simply couldn’t do more two-way communication.
Then you take Alexander Russo’s District 299 blog, and it has great two-way communication but could be stronger in terms of original content.
Again, if time weren’t an issue, what would the proper mash-up look like?
- Clear beat: GothamSchools
- High volume of commentary: SciGuy
- Harvesting of comments “Here’s what you said about this…”: Come Heller High Water
- Inquiries/questions asked to readers: Security Fix
- Daily roundup: The Daily Wrap
- Filtering and linking: Today in the Sky
- Comments or e-mails from readers run as posts/used for story ideas/improve stories: Central PA NewsVote
- Comments hosted in blog entries: Inside Ed
- Reader blogs: Seattle PI
- Hoisting Comments: Dallas ISD Blog
- Live blogging: The Caucus
- Frequent blog posts by author, i.e. several per day, updates: Glenn Greenwald
- Contact info/Transparency/Accessibility/Brand identity: Security Fix
- Good use of Twitter: Alex Roarty of PoliticsPA
- Quality writing/grammar/style: Slate.com
The Results
In the end, it’s all a time and money game. There’s not enough of either. And that’s okay — for now.
Beatblogs are still in their infancy, and it’s going to take time to evolve into something powerful and profitable. It’s always important, however, to keep fresh ideas in mind and constantly try to break the mold.
Be creative. Think outside the box. Learn from the best.
Run the best damn beatblog that the Internet’s ever seen. 
How to work a popular beat on the Web
Beatblogging is all about niche. It thrives on a specific focus. For many beatbloggers, it’s the un-tapped niche that garners them attention and lures readers. It’s the “crime on second avenue” beat that gets noticed by worried locals and the “death of print” beat that gets noticed by worried journalists.
But what happens when your beat is too popular?
For Sascha Segan, PC Magazine’s mobile phone expert, that’s both the problem and the solution. Segan writes for the gadget beat on PCMag’s blog, Gearlog, “A Gadget Guide By Geeks, For Geeks.” Yet, it’s a niche topic that is covered by high-traffic blogs like Gizmodo, Engadget and LifeHacker.
“It’s absolutely very competitive,” Segan said. “We have our strengths , which is that Gearlog has grown out of a larger, more traditional organization — PC Magazine.”
According to Segan, it’s important that Gearlog be able to draw out all the resources of PCMag and have more of an establishment perspective than the other tech/gadget blogs. “We try to give a different spin and history behind our stories,” he explained.
What Segan likes about his job is that he gets to create original material, rather than just aggregation work or linking to other blogs.
“There are some areas where I do a lot more research and in-depth reporting than Gizmodo,” he said. “I do a lot more reviews than them, while they cover a lot of news events.”
For instance, Segan recently broke the story on the Al Gore’s barring of “press coverage” at the CTIA Wireless mobile phone industry trade show.
“If Gore thinks that he’s going to somehow stop 4,000 mobile technology experts, all carrying smart phones, from blogging, tweeting and even recording his speech, he has a 19th-century idea of how information flows,” wrote Segan on Gearlog.
Other examples of Segan’s work include step-by-step notes on testing the iPhone for the first time (a great list of features, capabilities, as well as limits and let-downs), personally testing the Verizon G’zOne phone underwater, and live metablogging the Apple WWDC Announcement last summer. Or what about when Segan discovered a mysterious, password-protected page on Palmwc2009.com that ended up being a mistake on Palm’s part (The company intended only to let Palm employees see the site, not the public)? Segan’s articles are usually popular and ranked high on TechMeme.
But in the end — sites like Gizmodo and Engadget get all the traffic, so why not go write for them?
“I like everything about working for PCMag,” says Segan. “There’s a different mood here. We’re not quite as moment to moment as other blogs. Because we come from a magazine perspective, you can sit down and work on a story or review for a couple of days. You can be more focused on getting things neat, accurate and 100% correct in a very traditional journalism type of way.”
Segan added although some of the mainstream gadget blogs used to produce more second-hand news, many of them now do a lot of first-hand reporting and good journalism, especially Engadget (in his opinion).
In the end, Segan has found that the blogging world has a kinship-type structure that allows equal space for little and big dogs alike.
“There is some sort of respect on people that people who break stories,” he said. “They link to you, you link to them back.”
Making your beatblog transparent
This article isn’t meant to be groundbreaking. In fact, its simplicity may annoy you. And yet, so many beatbloggers could benefit from the following words of advice.
Please, please, please be transparent.
A successful beatblog requires a way through which readers can contact the author. It sounds dumb to be even mentioning this to a group of professional journalists who “know this already,” but I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been to try to contact some beat bloggers.
A beatblog has to be sure to keep an open dialogue with readers. It’s the nature of the beast. Today, the blogs that interact most with their audience are the ones that become both economically viable, and help the author/s of the blog stay engaged and interested.
There are a lot of examples of blogs that follow the dialogue norms, but a problem arises time and time again. While commenting may be straight forward for the average user, sometimes private messages are important for all sorts of reasons. Many blogs do not have a straight forward way for people to email or message them privately.
Take for example Glenn Greenwald. An avid blogger and journalist for Salon.com, Glenn is world renowned for writing some of the most in-depth political articles out of there. When Glenn writes a post, if you blink, the post might be updated two or three or four times after the comments that readers leave, whether it be a typo or some news Glenn may have overlooked. But his Web site doesn’t make it straightforward on how to contact Glenn privately. Where’s his e-mail? In small text half way down the page.
Take a look at SciGuy, Eric Berger. He runs a fantastic science blog over at the Houston Chronicle. But scroll through the Web site or Google his name and I can assure it won’t be easy to find his e-mail. Same goes for Gene Sloan, Cruise beatblogger at USA Today.
Where is the “about” or “contact” page on The Dallas Morning News’ popular Dallas ISD Blog? How do I get in touch with John Ortiz, author of the Sacramento Bee’s beatblog, The State Worker?
Even Monica Guzman over at the Seattle PI doesn’t make it entirely straight-forward for readers to follow The Big Blog, with contact info buried between articles and cluttered content.
On the other hand, Brian Krebs, author of Security Fix at The Washington Post clearly posts his contact information at the top of his blog. Likewise, St. Petersburg Times’ Bay Buzz does a good job of stating what the blog is about and how to get in contact with Times editor, Heather Urquides.
I could go on and on.
You get the idea: There has to be a move to promote a private dialogue as much as a public one. And if you have a Twitter account that you use for work, make it prominent on your beatblog. It’s another easy way for people to interact with journalism.
If you’re a beatblogger and you’re not publicly allowing your readers — your audience — to get a hold of you, you’re missing out. Big time.
Beatbloggers, it’s time you start focusing as much on transparency as you do on content.
Please blog for us! Reader blogs and the online newsroom
Earlier this month the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became an online-only publication and reduced it’s staff by eighty percent. They essentially evacuated the entire economy class of a Boeing 757 and left only the 20 first class members to stick around.
The change is drastic. The PI is one of the first major newspapers to make such a bold decision. The digital-only publication will struggle with revenue strategies, and The PI Twenty will have to become ironmen of multimedia, athletes proficient in beat blogging, social media, web video, photography and more.
As its former competition, The Seattle Times, is left with the burden of gathering “all the bright red boxes that held the product of its deceased rival,” skeptical journalists are placing bets on just how long the PI will survive.
The answer is easy. As long as the readers want.
Blog For Us
It all started back around January 2006. That’s when the Seattle PI began inviting readers to blog for them.
“The idea behind the reader blogs is simply to give readers a place where they can write about their passions,” said SeattlePI.com Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi.
In three years the site managed to attract more than 150 readers to blog for the publication. For free.
“We don’t pay reader bloggers, but we do bring them other advantages,” Nicolosi explained. “There’s millions of people blogging in obscurity around the world. People who blog for us find an audience right away, because we put their work in front of our four million unique users every month.”
It’s no wonder the folks at the PI feel like they no longer have to cover everything themselves. They’re essentially running a journalistic Habitat for Humanity, encouraging volunteerism and community building. There are dozens of blogs for every niche from graceful aging, Seattle food, Washington trails and dogaholics to rebuilding the economy and garden photography. There’s even a blog called “Jobless in Seattle.” (Authored by a former PI staff member, perhaps?)
But is there such a thing as too many blogs? Too many niche topics? For Nicolosi, each one of the blogs isn’t designed to be read or liked or appreciated by everyone.
“Some people want to read video game reviews, some people want to read about cooking and fashion and being single in Seattle — some don’t,” she said. “What I’m trying to do is put together a great mix of content so that no matter who you are, there’s something here of interest to you.”
As for PI staff-produced blogs… there are only eight.
Once A Newspaper… Always A Newspaper?
The “Blog For Us” feature on SeattlePI.com may become a main source of life support for the 146-year old “paper.” Reader bloggers help the staff cover topics that they would not have otherwise been able to cover. But such a system raises questions about ethics, transparency and objectivity.
Should the PI thrive and turn a profit off of reader blogs? Should the PI even keep the same name? It’s a non-newspaper that hosts blogs run by non-reporters/editors.
Tim Shisler, multimedia travel journalist and adventure-enthusiast, speculated on his blog about citizen journalism and the changing landscape of media:
A majority of the thinking has been around one central thought: are citizen journalists really doing any reporting that doesn’t directly reflect their own personal agenda or interests? One of the greatest things about journalism is reporters are supposed to be objective, and even though they may hate going to city council meetings, they still report the news. So as the PI goes to an online only format and reduces it’s news staff from 165 to 20, I can’t help but wonder what the quality of news will be. I want to say great, but who’s going to ask, ‘what’s you’re agenda and personal gain if writing a free blog for us?’ They need the content too bad, and have no money to pay a reporter to get it.
“We have a fairly elaborate screening process,” Nicolosi said. “We ask readers to describe the blog they’re proposing, we take a look at their writing, we do a background check, and more. If it all looks good, we sign them up to blog.”
Background checks on hundreds of blogs? It’s mind-boggling to imagine the amount of requests that The PI Twenty receive on a daily basis from readers who want to blog. And yet, the PI claims it responds to every request. Every single one.
“We have an email set up for reader bloggers – blog@seattlepi.com,” Nicolosi said. “We check the inbox a number of times a week and follow up with everyone who writes in.”
This, by far, is the strongest evidence that the organization is no longer a newspaper, where such a promise would hardly last.
Trend Watch 2009
SeattlePI.com is not the only news site that boasts reader blogs. Nicolosi recalls the practice being encouraged as early as 2003 by Rob Curley, who was then still at The Lawrence Journal-World. And in 2005, Norwegian Daily Verdens Gang (VG), attracted over 25,000 bloggers. Today, newspapers like The Sun and The Telegraph offer readers the freedom to publish their own stories under the paper’s name.
Just last week, The Cincinnati Enquirer admitted it would have to rely heavily on the help of local bloggers to stay afloat. In return, the “Enky” would offer links and prominent placement in exchange for a partnership and/or ad-sharing. Their strategy, according to rival Cincinnati City Beat, is to have a “blogger pull plan” where local blogs are fed to the site not only to supplement content but also fill content holes (particularly in entertainment).
For those closely following the Seattle PI or Cincinnati Enquirer, a looming concern will be how the sites regulate misinformed or questionable content from reader bloggers. The Telegraph’s experiment with user-generated content, for instance, produced “some very unsavoury characters,” such as members of the far right, anti-abortionists, europhobes, and members of an anti-feminist “men’s movement.”
Moderators are the most predictable solution.
A Win/Win Situation
As of Sunday, March 29, SeattlePI.com’s page views have dropped 20 percent since the abolishment of its print edition. It sounds like failure, but to the The PI Twenty it’s a sign of success. “Experiment a lot, fail fast,” is their motto according to Nicolosi. Tumbling web traffic is expected and, frankly, a non-issue at this point.
Instead of fretting over stats and analytics during this transition period, the Seattle PI listens to what the reader wants. When the reader complains, that’s when they’ll start sweating.
“We had a party for our reader bloggers a few weeks ago to thank them for blogging for us,” Nicolosi said. “They’re a great group of people and a diverse group of writers.”
A chance to blog for a top newspaper website that gives you high traffic and invitations to parties?
No wonder readers love the Seattle PI.
Q&A: Steve Buttry says newsroom cultures will have to change
Steve Buttry is helping to lead the radical transformation of Gazette Communication in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Yesterday we had an in-depth post about those changes and why Buttry believes they are necessary. In addition, we ask Buttry some of the whys below:
Alana: The Cedar Rapids Gazette is undergoing a radical reorganization that no newspaper company has ever done before. What are you most worried about?
Buttry: One of them is revenue. I am very confident that we are innovating wisely and aggressively on the content side, but I am not as closely tied to the side that works with revenue. I trust that the team that works on revenue is reorganizing and moving and hiring to innovate as aggressively as the content team, but I, personally, can’t see the immediate progress yet.
The other thing related to that is that we could do everything right with revenue in terms of changing how we work, think, and going beyond, and yet we are in a terrible economy. In other words, we may have the answer but right now may just be the wrong time. Not to mention, Cedar Rapids and other smaller communities were burdened by a recent flooding disaster that created huge economic impacts. These types of events have huge impacts and are completely out of our control.
My second worry is that workplace cultures are tremendously difficult to change. I think we are making significant progress in changing it, but work habits and way of thinking of the newsroom will need to change dramatically to make our new approach work. While I see that they are changing, I worry that they wont change as quickly or as dramatically enough.
Alana: How did the idea for this whole reorganization come about? Was there an existing model that inspired you? Whose idea was it?
Buttry: It was a marriage of ideas. I came up with the vision. When I was at the American Institute I developed an image of what I thought newsrooms could look like, which became the C3 – Complete Community Connection. Once I met Chuck Peters (CEO of Gazette Communications) I could see he was onto the “how” of my “what.”
Alana: With the new structure in place, will the reporters be beatblogging?
Buttry: Yes, but in a different sense than what exists presently. We are separating our content operation entirely from our product operation. Our reporters will be blogging, but they are going to be multitasking entrepreneurial journalists. (I don’t use the term blogger just because has gotten a more narrow meaning in the public as a “guy with a lot of opinions in his pajamas in his basement saying, ‘Here is what I think about the world.”) They are going to be more than beat reporters. One of the things we’re doing is changing terminology in order to change thinking. So, we tell them: You own this topic, you are responsible for generating content on this topic. Some of that content will be words, video, still pictures, data, etc. Colleagues will be there to help, but essentially it’s all up to you.
Alana: Sounds like The Gazette is on to something revolutionary. By what date should we expect to see some sort of “proof of success,” if you will?
Buttry: By April 6 we will have a lot of our transition completed. I will be disappointed if we don’t have a full operation going by May. I’m sure there’ll be shakedown period where we do stupid things, while we try to figure things out. By next Fall we should have a lots of success stories and a few stories of failure.
Alana: Do you expect other newspaper companies to follow your lead?
Buttry: We’re in a copycat industry, and we’re in one that’s desperate for solutions. So, yes, particularly if we’re successful in the revenue side. We’re already getting a lot of attention across the web and on the news; it would be surprising if no one thought we were on to something good.
Gazette Communications is transforming out of necessity
One of the most aggressive and radical reorganizations of a newsroom recently has been that of Gazette Communications in 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa — a local media company serving Eastern Iowa primarily through The Gazette newspaper and KCRG – TV9, an ABC affiliate, along with numerous niche print and online products. Just two weeks ago, staff members at the Gazette agreed to a dramatic role-change and wild transformation of the newsroom from a traditional print company into a forward-focused digital-only startup. Now, former editor Steve Buttry will be the “Information Content Conductor.”
Information Content Conductor — What IS it?
The title, quite frankly, sounds like it requires a uniform of blue overalls, a whistle and a red bandanna tied around the neck: “All aboard!” What does information content mean? And how on earth do you go about conducting it?
The easiest way to understand Buttry’s role is to understand what has been frustrating the staff members over at the Gazette. According to Buttry’s blog, for too long newspaper companies have needed to transform their organizations. First, they acted as factories of skilled workers who each had a separate assignment and “always gathered more information than their newspapers published.” Then, newspapers moved online and new positions were added, new digital content was published, niche products were unveiled and events were covered live.
“But our organization remained structured and focused primarily on the newspaper product,”Buttry said.
Finally, the Gazette decided that they had to change their company completely. Under the leadership of Chuck Peters, Gazette Communications CEO, the company will transform into an independent organization that will focus exclusively on developing content from their professional journalists as well as from the community.
“We will publish this content digitally without editing and without the limitations of products,” Buttry added.
At the same time, an entirely separate organization will plan and edit products, such as the Gazette and GazetteOnline. Still lost? The basic idea is that the separation of content creation from the making of products will lead to deeper, more meaningful content.
The products will still remain, but the responsibility of handling them will be under a separate team — not messily sandwiched together as it used to be. So now, when you read “Information Content Conductor,” you slowly begin to feel comfortable with its meaning: It is the task of making sure that databases, videos, audio, slideshows, text messages, blogs, tweets, interactive multimedia, comments, questions, live chats, interactive maps and more are under surveillance by creative people who are looking for factual news. Furthermore, it is the duty of keeping the staff motivated while making sure the people — the original creators of content — are happy, too.
Who wants to be Daniel Victor’s assignment editor?
How Daniel Victor’s ‘Central PA NewsVote’ is raising the bar on beatblogging
The media industry is in trouble. That much is clear. But instead of grieving the death of a long-suffering system, the important question we should be asking is, “What can journalists do about it?” Daniel Victor, 24, is a reporter for The (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News, and he thinks he’s got an answer.
“My new assignment editor? You, the community” is the headline of the post written by Victor on PennLive.com’s blog. Left alone, it sounds like a gimmick. Yet, the first sentence dispels any ambiguity in what Victor means by his title: “In the face of some skeptics, I stubbornly believe PennLive readers should be involved in deciding which stories we write.”
Pitch your stories. Vote on them. I’ll write them. I’m all yours.
On March 3, 2009 Central PA NewsVote officially launched. What is it? How does it work? As a “hybrid mobile journalist/general assignment reporter,” Victor will take the best story ideas from the comments section of his blog, create a poll on the site and allow readers to vote on which story he should do next. Then, the chosen story is the one he will write.
The people are his assignment editor.
Already, in the first week Victor received dozens of story ideas which he compiled into a small poll widget. The idea is to report on the hyper-local stories that matter most to the people. The result is that the blog will eventually become the number one, go-to site for members of that community.
“If you check this new blog every day, you will always learn about a new wrinkle in your community,” writes Victor. “That’s a wonderful promise for a news site to make.”
Tackling the Skepticism
It’s a wonderful promise, indeed. But is it even possible? Can a reporter really rely on an often-snarky forum culture that lives on the Internet? What if the readers contribute bad stories? What if they don’t contribute at all? Is there a plan B? All these questions press upon Victor’s new endeavor.
“I am trying to build up a bank of story ideas that people can vote on; that’s the backup plan,” Victor explains. “I can get my own pitches and let people vote so they feel like they’re participating, even if their not producing story ideas.”
Victor has already done a lot of work to get things started off on the right foot by using social media, and building a small army on Facebook and Twitter in order to get people used to sending in pitches.
According to Tech Dirt’s culture blogger, Mike Masnick, a mere voting mechanism sort of misses the point of what the community can add. It should go beyond voting to actually helping out — giving tips, feedback, ideas, facts and opinions, he writes. Masnick suggests letting the community go so far as actually helping to research a story.
“That’s kind of what I’m doing with Twitter,” Victor said in response. “That’s my main way of reaching people. I could see possibly using the blog to say, ‘this story won.’”
What it takes to be a beatblogger
Want to know what it takes to be a beatblogger? Not sure where to start? Who is doing it already? Here is your simple introduction to the new revolutionary practice that is changing the world of digital journalism.
A beatblogger isn’t just a blogger.
Twitter isn’t merely “Facebook Status Updates.” It’s much more. Likewise, beatblogging is more than just a journalist being assigned to blog for a major news publication. A beatblogger, simply put, is a beat reporter who uses their blog as a tool to engage their readers, interact with them, use them as sources, crowdsource their ideas and invite them to contribute to the reporting process.
When a beat reporter uses social networking with the community to create hyper-local and hyper-focused stories – that’s beatblogging. As a result, the beat is better researched because the community that is directly involved with the subject is actively participating in creating news.
Your readers are your new BFF’s. Get to know them. Invite them to dinner.
Okay, so you don’t exactly have to invite them into your home, but you get the idea. Beatblogging requires reporters to start conversations with their readers. But simply replying to a few comments doesn’t cut it. It’s the year 2009. You have to be way more active than that. This means asking questions, replying to comments, seeking out tips, using their story ideas and building stories upon their conversations.
More often than not you’ll be required to continue conversations on older stories even when you are already working on a new project. This can be tiring, time-consuming and hard work. But the trade-off is that much of the researching and source-chasing that journalists used to undergo is eliminated through the first degree contact with the community.
If you haven’t spoken to your audience, if you don’t know who your most loyal reader is, if you haven’t written a story based on a tip from the comments section of your blog and if you haven’t asked the crowd for help — you’re losing. You’re not using 2009 tools to be at the forefront of the digital revolution. And you’re certainly not a beatblogger.
Be everywhere. I’m not kidding.
Journalists in the 21st century can no longer hide behind their bylines. I can’t stress enough how important it is for bloggers to be accessible through all networks and social sites. Where’s your “about” page? Is your e-mail easy to find? Do you have a photo up? Even some of the most successful beatbloggers today have not been doing a good job of making themselves transparent.
It’s important to bridge the gap between reader and source and build a circle of trust. And the only way this can happen successfully is if both sides agree to be transparent. If bloggers are annoyed by snarky, anonymous commenters, then lead by example. Don’t hide information about yourself either.
Be accessible. That means I should be able to find your name, a photo, e-mail, Facebook page, LinkedIN account, Twitter name and possibly an e-mail. That’s it. It’s not too hard, and it will make your beatblogging experience world’s easier. (P.S. Want to be a top search result when searching for the term ‘beatblogger’? Then make sure to add the keyword multiple times in your various social profiles!).
Learn by example. It’s okay to copy practices. Don’t worry, it’s not plagiarism.
Journalists hate to copy. They don’t like anything that isn’t original or different. They like to be the first to report on a story or have a certain angle. But sometimes it’s okay to copy, especially in the case of beatblogging. What this means is that you should look at what current beatbloggers are doing successfully and emulate their methods to form your own beatblog.
Take a look at Kent Fischer from the Dallas Independent School District Blog, who is building a “blog on steroids.” Fischer’s blog is essentially a micro-site, a niche publication that covers the education system in Dallas, Texas by combining beatblogging with database reporting.
Learn from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Monica Guzman as she innovate with her weekly office hours for readers. Guzman connects with her users on her blog, The Big Blog, on social media sites like Twitter and in person. Guzman is a master conversation starter and uses her networks to get people talking about issues in Seattle and about the PI’s content. The Big Blog is all about cultivating conversations and there is no one better than Guzman at that.
Check out Brian Stelter from the New York Times who is beatblogging at “TV Decoder,” where he covers the day’s on-screen and behind-the-scenes developments, with insights into Nielsen ratings and the machinations of the TV industry. Stelter has found that it’s easier to share stories, ideas, links and be able to ask for advice, contacts, and sources. He is always opening himself up to opinions, more points of view and more sources. Likewise, users send Stelter feedback and actually like to contribute because they feel more connected. He is a real person they can interact with.
Watch Daniel Victor, the twenty-four year old reporter for The (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News. Victor is trying his hand at mobile journalism, and he’s convinced that community-building and crowdsourcing are the two biggest keys to journalism’s future. Victor experimented with a Ning network that ultimately didn’t work out, but it hasn’t deterred him from innovating. Victor’s latest venture is a blog where Victor asks his reader’s to be his assignment editor. Readers are, literally, his assignment editors — researching, contributing ideas and suggesting stories.
Lastly… INNOVATE!
The most marked characteristic of beatbloggers is that they all took it upon themselves to pitch new ideas to their editors and take on radical experiments that had never been attempted in the world of journalism. A true beatblogger never stops trying to innovate and create new ways of using the community and social media tools to improve journalism. Don’t be afraid to use your own methods. And when you do, be sure to send us your work our way!
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