Thought of the Day: beatblogs as mini newspapers

Today’s Thought of the Day comes from Theodore Kim, a beatblogger and reporter for The Dallas Morning News.

Because of the realities of today’s newsroom and tough economic times, Kim said pretty much all reporters are contributing to blogs in some ways. He said that blogging is just more efficient:

As much as I hate to say this, blogging is becoming a far more efficient way of publishing news than a newspaper.
As we’ve come to find out, a beat blog is, in essence, a tiny newspaper.

The blogger acts as reporter, editor, designer and publisher. In that vein, the blogger also serves as a, kind of, traffic cop for feedback (much as someone overseeing letters to the editor might). That construct, I think, is made for leaner newsrooms and times.

Theodore, like many beatbloggers, feels ownership over his blogs. He monitors and guides comments after his posts and actively engages users. His job is much different than a reporter of even a few years ago.

I have to wonder if a news organization composed of individual beatblogs like Theodore’s could be a good model moving forward. Beatbloggers would have a large degree of autonomy over their beatblogs, would post most content unedited and would cultivate communities around their beatblogs.