Brittney Gilbert, who authors Eye on the Blogs, spotted my post asking Will the CoCo Times’ Reporting of WC City Council Meetings and Other Local News Be Outsourced to Writers in India?
In her post, Glocal News: Coming to a Rag Near You? Gilbert noted how I, Soccer Mom, at my "Walnut Creek-centric" blog, sent an email to the executive editor of the Contra Costa Times to ask if their reporters would soon be sending in their pieces from across the ocean.
Notably, Gilbert, the purpose of whose blog is to be a one-stop source for hot topics and discussions happening on Bay Area blogs, offered my question to the Contra Costa Times editor as an example of perhaps how “hyperlocal metrobloggers can really step it up and stake claim over the local news market.”
She goes on: "If the gargantuan corporate entities that own most newspapers in this country begin outsourcing the gathering of news at the local, neighborhood level then, let's face it, they've failed … Sure, they can fill the sections with inches of copy perfect for placing ads on either side. But the reader will be cheated. The communities the papers cover will be worse off, without a doubt, because the 4th estate is going broke--dying a slow, agonizing death--and they've abandoned those who prop their paper up. …
"[Meanwhile] there are bloggers who are doing great reporting from the very seat of their colorful communities, and kicking all kinds of ass doing it. … These kinds bloggers are picking up the slack that newspapers and TV stations have dropped. Why? Because they have a vested interest in their neighborhoods. They care whether or not libraries get closed or potholes get filled. And while this may seem like small potatoes to anyone outside of Concord, rest assured, Concordians care a great deal."
Yes, she mentions Crazy in Suburbia, as well as the superior Claycord.com (That’s where the Concord reference comes in). And speaking of the Mayor of Claycord, I may be crazy but not as crazy—and I mean, in his case, in a good way—as the Mayor, who apparently has a day job but still works his tail off in his off hours, breaking local news on a daily basis and engaging his community in incredible levels of discussion and debate. Claycord.com is an example of democracy and citizen journalism in action. I love what Claycord.com is doing and wish I could be as on top of Walnut Creek news as the mayor is. I'm a former daily newspaper reporter and can still feel that adrenaline rush of getting that scoop. But right now I can’t devote as much time right now, and I also don’t have the Mayor's level of crazy energy.
Anyway, Brittney, thanks for your kudos, both for me and the Mayor—who, by the way, needs to get that exploratory committee ready for his 2012 run for president.
2 comments:
Claycord is the best. I don't even read the Times anymore. I go to Claycord.
Mayor for president!
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