The newspaper in my area published an article today about how local blogs are impacting a CSX development project.
Readers of this blog may find the story familiar. I wrote a post on how the CSX story developed in cooperation between bloggers and traditional journalists.
I've posted my thoughts on the article over at my hyperlocal blog: Empirical Polk.
Of course the story does feature a picture of me 'blogging'. That's what's always funny about stories like this. The photographer shows up and says, "I'm supposed to get some shots of you blogging......so blog."
Visitor Comments
I wonder if reporters realize that when people blog, it strangely looks like many other things - Internet browsing, typing, thinking, online gaming, waiting for that damn thing to download, playing chess, etc. :)
Posted by: Kevin Howarth | June 18, 2007 1:10 PM
So this is what "blogging" looks like? Looks extremely serious. This is a great one for your portfolio. Congrats Josh!
Posted by: j. brotherlove | June 18, 2007 7:28 PM
One of the interesting sidelights of The Ledger blog story was the results of the Polk Pulse question that was printed the following day. The question was: Do you read online blogs about topics concerning Polk County? Based on 227 responses, the results were: Yes: 24 percent; No, 76 percent.
Anyone care to comment?
Posted by: tom palmer | June 25, 2007 10:29 AM
Tom:
With blog readership it's more a who and not a how many. I know that my blog is read by a number of reporters in this market from a variety of papers. If I reach them then there is a chance that a story will go wider.
A perfect example is the CSX story. The Ledger had done very little reporting on the story until Billy at the Trib and a few other bloggers brought it to the forefront.
The big thing though is that EP is a hobby and not a business. It doesn't matter if I have 30 readers or 300. Readership at newspapers matters, it drives revenue and the business.
While the Ledger might have a large circulation and readership, when you start to look at the article level there might not be many readers.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | June 25, 2007 10:49 AM
Josh,
Hi! Good to see you again in the Ledger. Hope you remember me but we worked together at a now unnamed company you a few years back but come on... can The Ledger interview a Polk County Sauce Company every once in a while!??
Glad to see you are doing so well.
Write me some time.
Richard
richard@MostWantedFoods.com
http://mostwantedfoods.com
Posted by: Richard | July 5, 2007 6:59 PM