September 12, 2003

Are Blogs Journalism? They Should Be

Editor & Publisher columnist Steve Outing says it's time for newspapers to blog hard news on their websites

One of the most common criticisms of newspaper web sites is that they aren't timely enough. Sure, we're long past the days when newspapers held on to news till the presses rolled for the print edition rather than publishing right away online. But most newspaper sites still don't treat breaking news with a publish-right-this-minute mentality. The thinking remains rooted in a print-based past - a story is published only when it's completely finished. OK, now combine that thought with the concept of the weblog, or blog. It's time for increasing the speed of news sites - to that of television news - and weblogs are the way to do it. And it's time to stop thinking of blogs mostly in the realm of feature and opinion content, and move the concept into breaking news.

By now, I hope it's accepted by most everyone in the news industry that weblogs are not a fad. The blog is a legitimate form of online content with many useful news applications. Till now, the few news web sites that have experimented with weblogs have used them more for "feature" content than for hard news. But it's time to push the envelope to blogging hard news.