Run up the Score, in my humble opinion, is the best of the many Penn State football-themed blogs out there. Though my particular newspaper, in my humble opinion, offers the best Penn State football coverage out there, RUTS has become required reading. I swept the pigeons away from my typewriter long enough to e-mail the author some questions. He was kind enough to answer those questions, mid-air, while doing some kind of trick on his skateboard. (Try Fire Joe Morgan or Deadspin for an explanation of that ridiculous image.) It was an effort to show that bloggers aren’t the inherently evil, newspaper-reader-stealing, ethics-depraved leeches that some newsroom dwellers paint them to be. A lot of thought and passion goes into their craft, and the sooner journalists understand that, the better. (Any italics are my own, to emphasize what I believe are key points. I cut out parts of his answers just so it wasn’t too long; if anyone is interested in reading the full Q&A, I’d be happy to forward it to you.) BDV: At what point, and why, did you decide you wanted to blog? RUTS: Personally, Run Up The Score started as a general sports blog with a moderate concentration on college football. It didn’t take long for it to become a college football blog with a heavy Penn State concentration. Now it’s a Penn State blog that occasionally dabbles in other areas. Nobody succeeds with a blog, certainly not on a personal satisfaction level, if they only passively care about the subject. That’s why so many blogs pop up and disappear after a month. The writer finally says to himself, “wait, why the hell am I doing this?” and quits. I think anyone who takes the time to start a blog and maintain it on a consistent basis feels that the entire story isn’t being told. It doesn’t matter if the chosen topic is college football, politics, or baking. Blogging gives a potentially loud voice to people who don’t have access, and there’s certainly a place for writers who don’t get too intimate with the people and subjects they cover. The best blogs fill in the gaps that newspapers, television, and radio can’t always cover for whatever reason. They can’t be everywhere. The Associated Press is never going to pick up a Joe Paterno road rage story unless he kills somebody. Why would they? But if you type “Joe Paterno road rage” into Google, I guarantee that 95% of the stories on the topic are written on blogs, and they did it with an informality and sense of humor you can’t get from traditional media sources. That’s also part of why blogs published by established news outlets are often so awkward — there’s often an editing process and the writer doesn’t get to write stories predicting Anthony Morelli’s performance on the Wonderlic Test at the NFL Combine. They’ll state that he’s in Indianapolis with three other players for the NFL Combine, which is something that 80% of Penn State fans already knew. Newspaper blogs usually end up being exactly what they shouldn’t be — another source of the same news found elsewhere, not to mention there’s hardly ever any evident joy in the writing. Credibility issues iron themselves out in the blogosphere, especially because the best bloggers are sensitive to the constant, uninformed criticism that all blogs are written by people with no regard for fact (especially because newspapers so often bungle or conceal significant parts of a story). Sure, some sites are like that, but who reads them on a consistent basis? If I posted tomorrow morning that I had an inside source in Old Main stating that Joe Paterno will resign on Thursday morning and Jay Paterno will take over as head coach, it won’t take many more of those mistakes before I squander whatever readership I’ve built up over the past two years. In a weird sense, this is my baby. If I blatantly plagiarized or fabricated something, I’d eventually be called on it in a very real, public fashion. Consumers of traditional media don’t often get the opportunity to lash out at reporters, at least not for the whole world to see. BDV: You give a great definition of what newspaper blogs shouldn’t be. So what should they be? What do you think reporters could learn from the best bloggers?  

Reminder- The second installment of the blogHarrisburg/Harrisburg Twitter/AnyKindOfMedia meetup is happening tonight- Thursday, June 19 at The Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Company from 6-8PM. These are informal meet-n-greet/discussion groups focused on new media and blogging in the Harrisburg area. Anyone who writes ANY kind of blog, e-newsletter, e-publication is invited to attend. Last months inaugural meetup saw the [...]

I was delighted to find Jessica DaSilva’s blog (via Pat Thornton). Jessica, a journalism student at the University of Florida, had a recent entry about her internship at the Tampa Tribune that took me back to the good old days of unadulterated enthusiasm. Reading through Jessica’s blog shows you don’t have to be an expert with years of experience to have something valuable to offer. So why aren’t more students blogging? I suspect it’s because, all over the country, students are still being taught to have a fear of blogging, bloggers and blogs. I talked to a group of students at Lebanon Valley College this spring about blogging, and the professor challenged each of the students to start their own blog. Some of the results: Popcorn Nation, A Mess of Youthful Innocence, PA Press Watch, Over the Counter, Not Just Another Indie Hipster, Today’s Menu. Some of them are really impressive offerings. PA Press Watch was a great read in the Pennsylvania primaries, as he dissected how different newspapers covered everything. Popcorn Nation and Not Just Another Indie Hipster have been embedding videos and linking with the best of them. Over the Counter and Today’s Menu have given interesting looks at working in a pharmacy and restaurant, respectively. These are difficult subjects to maintain blogs on, but they need not be professional. What’s really cool about the project is that the students are beginning to understand the culture of blogging. You see them leaving comments on each other’s entries. You see them linking to each other, or leaving comments in other blogs. These students, once they find themselves at a news organization, will be much better suited to starting a blog on their beat. Having maintained a blog while in college was one of my big selling points in being hired for my current reporting job. So let me ask: Do you know of any other students blogging about journalism, like Jessica DaSilva? If you are one, please make sure to let me know you exist.

I’m not sure when it went live, but the new Syracuse.com looks like a significant step up from the prior design shared by all Advance Internet sites (including Pennlive, which posts stories written by my newspaper. Clicking those two pretty much gives you the before and after for Syracuse). Read more details of the Syracuse.com redesign at the site. Before I praise it too much, a caveat: It’s still lipstick on a pig. We need a rethinking far more than we need a redesign. I’m still waiting for a truly innovative newspaper site that establishes itself as the real town square of the local Web. That won’t happen until newspapers start leading the way in the social aspect of the Web, instead of just doing its duty with a few blogs and forums. That said, the Advance team deserves some praise for what amounts to significant cosmetic and usability improvements. The labyrinthine layout of the Advance template has been the bane of journalists nationwide, as we produce great content that can never be found by our readers. This looks to go a long way toward reducing the usability problems.

• Placing the “Real-Time News” box in the top left corner is a fool-proof way of ensuring that the newspaper’s true brand, the breaking news and enterprise, gets the placement it needs. I don’t think five breaking news headlines are enough, and I wish there was a place to better promote the print stories, but this is a step in the right direction.
• This is done without coming at the expense of sports stories, the apparent click-magnets, by giving them just as much visibility at the top. Under the previous design, sports and news competed for precious little space atop the site. It’s wonderful that they’ll never have to compete again.
• The ability to search entertainment listings from the home page is a good idea, and I hope the staff is up to providing the exhaustive listings that it would really need. I know in Harrisburg there’s a hard-working crew at Spotobe who are plenty willing to pick up the slack.
• Perhaps most exciting is the better play of videos and photos. Of all the usability issues with the prior design, this was perhaps the most glaring. At my paper, quality videos and photos were consistently buried in an obscure blog that wasn’t consistently linked on the home page.
• I enjoy the Interact box, and easily seeing where the most comments are coming in.

Much more work remains, and I’m sure I’ll find more problems once I dig deeper through the site. But if this home page design comes to my paper soon, I’ll be a happy reporter.

I love the beatblogging project because it’s innovation in real newsroom laboratories, as opposed to tsk-tsking and dreaming. My foray into it has had its ups and downs, but I recently had a kind of success story that I didn’t expect when I signed up. And it shows why I believe so much that social networking can revolutionize small-town beat reporting. A woman in the town I cover believed that she had spotted an injustice. (I won’t go into detail for competitive reasons, and because my work on the possible story is ongoing.) But she didn’t know what to do with this knowledge, so like any other computer user, she turned to Google. She typed in the name of a resident in town who her neighbors had recommended, a person who might know what to do with this information. One of the first results took her to The Hershey Home, the Ning network I set up for the beatblogging project. The resident she sought has been a frequent contributor to the network. Once there, she strolled around the site. She read all of my solicitations for story ideas, background information on stories I was already working on, and feedback for stories I’ve already written. She went ahead and e-mailed me to set up a meeting. After she spilled the beans at our meeting, I asked her why she contacted me. “I just read through your comments on the site, and you seemed like the type of person who would want to hear this,” she responded. Imagine that! I may have stumbled upon a high-impact story based on a tip from a person who isn’t even a member of the network. She chose to contact a reporter because the network put up an “Open for Business” sign,  and revealed that I have a genuine interest in hearing from as many residents as possible. An obligatory listing of our e-mail address at the end of our stories doesn’t invite our readers to contact us, it just allows them to. Setting up this kind of network, interacting with people online, and really advertising that we really, really do want to hear from people can directly lead to stories.

The third Thursday of every month, we’ll be having regular, casual get-togethers at Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg.  We’re usually upstairs in The Abbey from 7-9pm.  These are open to everyone in Central PA who has a blog (or podcast, or any other form of online self-publication), regardless of subject matter.  To be absolutely clear, even if you don’t write ABOUT Central PA, as long as you’re FROM Central PA, you’re invited!   These events are very casual and relaxed.  They’re an excellent chance to get together with your fellow local bloggers and chat about all things new-media-related.  As time goes on, we will have a few special meetings covering useful topics such as website monetization, promotion & branding, and platform comparison.  And there’s no shortage of friendly advice on getting started, making this an excellent chance for any potential would-be bloggers to come find out what it’s all about.  We’re a friendly bunch, and nobody will ever be cast aside for being too new. There’s no need to ask for an invite; just drop in.  We’re usually stationed between the bar and the stage.  If you do have any questions, need directions, or have an idea for a topic / presentation, by all means drop me a line using the “Contact” link above. I have to point out that ABC, through the efforts of Jersey Mike, has been awesome about letting us get together there, even on days when the upstairs wasn’t open to the public.  Although certainly not required, consider saying thanks by grabbing a drink or something to munch while you’re there.

I have to admit that it’s going to take me a little while to get used to blogging. My background is in journalism, and in fact, this is my first professional job outside of the biz. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed the switch. I was a sportswriter, and sportswriters almost inevitably begin hating sports. Trust me, I was well on my way. As a sportswriter, you constantly find yourself trying to talk to people that have no interest in talking to you. You also work lousy hours and have to spend a lot of time with other sportswriters, many of whom smell strongly of coffee and press food and love to talk about sportswriting. It’s not as glamorous as it seems.