This post is inspired by a discussion developing over Bronson Pettitt's recent post on how newspapers should stop dragging their feet when it comes to blogging.
"The point is blogs are now and have been for a few years an inevitable part of newspapers and it's time for the uninvolved ones to stop pussyfooting around and get with the program," Bronson writes.
I shared my feeling that smaller newspapers -- the papers that would perhaps benefit the most from blogs as a source of community news and commentary -- will probably be the last to "get with the program." I don't think I'm alone in holding that opinion, either.
But why? Why would smaller newspapers -- say, newspapers the size of the Fairmont Sentinel, the Marshall Independent, the New Ulm Journal, the Faribault Daily News (all around 8-10,000 and dropping in circulation, I believe) -- be the last to take advantage of resources such as blogs, or videos, or podcasts, or anything of that nature? (Note: I don't mean to pick on these newspapers -- they are all just southern Minnesota newspapers that happen to fit the description of small community papers and that I'm generally familiar with.)
I have my own opinion about the matter. What about the rest of my fellow classmates? This is assuming you agree with my original point about smaller newspapers being the last to adopt what would help them the most -- and maybe you don't even agree with that point. If so, I'm interested in hearing your opinion as well.
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This is making sweeping generalizations, but small towns are usually more conservative than urban areas, and that perhaps reflect in their media organizations as well. The most progressive changes usually come from the most educated, and they happen to be in urban areas. That could be naive thinking, but you don't see much technical know-how or new facets of journalism (blogging, forums, message boards, video, podcasting) at this eye sore. But perhaps small newspapers don't feel the need to expand; they know who they are serving, namely older people who don't feel comfortable getting their news from the net, and they see no benefit in doing so. It wouldn't hurt, though.
Side note -- I know I'm being harsh on the Austin Daily Herald, but they deserve it. I mean, they put ads ABOVE their masthead!! And their stories and reporting are crap! But they always have good photos.
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