Unspun was once assailed with a three-screen SMS by a foreign journalist in Jakarta for blogging. My only inference from that is that blogging has hit on a nerve of especially the most ardent journalists. Methinks the man doth protest too much.
It is still early days but increasingly it looks like blogging will change the way newspapers and PR people communicate. Via Micro Persuasion, Unspun has stumbled on a very timely analysis of the blogging-journalism relationship in the American Journalism Review. The upshot is that mainstream media these days have little choice but to try to respnd to the challenge from blogging.
It also contains tips for journalists planning to wade into the blogosphere from Dallas Morning News Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey who led her staff in launching the nation’s first editorial page blog. Here are her suggestions:
1. Be brief and informal. Breezy, conversational tone is good. Two hundred words is too long. Go for the quick hit, light touch, witty aside. Attitude required.
2. Don’t be too proud to blog.
3. Respond to previous blog postings. This is about conversation, after all. It’s the back and forth that makes a blog engaging.
4. Vary your topics. Don’t be a wonk.
5. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read in the paper.
6. Use hyperlinks.
7. Incorporate interesting, provocative reader e-mail. The best blogs are two-way streets.
8. Be quick to correct yourself.
9. Don’t feel obligated to answer all blog-generated e-mail.
10. Don’t over edit; but designate a blog boss.
Unspun 
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