March 31, 2005

Another Newspaper Does What 'Oregonian' Will Not

Someday, They Will Get A Clue

There's an interesting post on Morph (a weblog published by The Media Center) by Ken Sands, the online publisher for The Spokesman-Review out of Spokane, Washington.

In it, Sands references their editor's blog, which has been active for a year and just turned on reader comment functionality, announced that they are "recruiting a few local readers to write a 'citizens ombusdman' blog for us, which would allow for unfiltered criticism of us on our own pages", and will be webcasting their morning and afternoon news meetings.

Meanwhile, we here in Oregon are forced to suffer this instead.

(Forgive the brief media tangent. We're sitting around waiting for a telecommunications technician to arrive at our new building to perform the first step of our DSL install. So, mainly, we're seeking ways to kill the time.)

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Comments (3)

  1. PM on 31 Mar 2005

    It has taken the Oregonian some time to learn about the "Internet" and its "web" maybe they realize people use these things and could try to retool. But these internets are all a fad anyway.

  2. Ken Sands on 31 Mar 2005

    Keep in mind that The Oregonian and Oregon Live are separate corporate entities. I think there is a lot of frustration on both sides of the corporation about the inability to work together effectively. I know there are smart people in charge of Advance.com, and certainly there are smart people running The Oregonian. But they don't operate under the same corporate umbrella.

    We have the luxury of one local owner, and one editor who is very supportive of this kind of experimentation. We hope to stay ahead of the curve.

  3. The One True b!X on 31 Mar 2005

    Yes, the corporate wall -- and the general dissatisfaction on both sides of it -- between the different aspects of Advance have been discussed ad infinitum, here and elsewhere. Not that I'm chiding you, because you don't know that we're discussed that before, heh.

    That said and understood, I also have never bought into the argument that it's impossible for them to knock that wall down, functionally speaking. And I (and others) continue to find it deeply ironic and frustrating that Jeff Jarvis is himself so plugged into and a part of the world of blogs, and yet seems to be able to make no real headway in punching holes in that wall.

    Once good and deliberate push by the high muckity-mucks at the top of the Advance ladder could change their direction.

    And so some of us consider it our duty to knock them for that wall every chance we get.