So, what could we do with this?

Here's a concept for people in the local blogosphere to discuss: Since the local daily wants to reach out to the local blogging community, how's this as a way of getting things started?

First off, big props: The VAST majority of the blogs on this list were sent to me by Joan Perry of Walk This Way. I included a few she didn't send, but let's not confuse matters: Joan deserves the credit. Thank you, Joan.

Anyway, I'm sending this link out to a few local bloggers with this request: look over this concept, give me your comments and I'll try to encorporate them into something of value.

Your comments (free Typekey registration required) will be public, and I don't plan on pulling this stuff down when we formally "launch" this thing. The blog is real even if it's in development, and I don't mind showing my work. In fact, the only thing here's that's fake is the photograph -- that's Jerry Garcia, not me, but these days I look a lot more like Jerry than I look like the "official" photo of myself, so that sits there until I get an up-to-date mugshot.

If you want to send me a private comment: [email protected]

What this might be
As I imagine it, the backbone of this blog would be its lists, starting with The Big Blogroll, but then moving into more detailed categorizations. As you can see in the sidebar, I've set up some lists as examples. But how best to make sure we put blogs into the right lists? And what should the lists be?

Right now, I imagine The Big Blogroll to be an unordered link list that comes with a short description of each blog. New stuff comes in, it goes on top.

I like adding descriptions, because I don't generally like blind links. What I'd like to do is offer every blogger the opportunity to send me a one-line description of their blog, and then use that. If someone sends in a description that's blatantly misleading or otherwise worry-making, then that's a negotiation. And I want people to be able to remove their blog from this listing for any reason.

Meanwhile, I'll start putting up daily/semi-daily items featuring stuff like highlights from local blogs or comment threads, or maybe I'll just  note the most recent new blogs that have been submitted for The Big Blogroll. You get the picture: if you stop by here, you'll get a snapshot of what's going on in the local blogging community (or, more likely, communities).

How we might do it
There are about 30 links on The Big Blogroll now. After y'all have had your chance to bang on it, I was thinking that I'd send out an e-mail to everyone on the list, basically asking them to stop by, check out the way their blog is described, and then send me an e-mail with their own description, maybe classifying themselves under some of the categories. Consider the current descriptions placeholders.

Most blogs would come under several headings. A blog with multiple interests might be listed under Politics, Arts, Humor, Etcetera and Charleston. And then I'd tweak things as we went along, maybe adding, subtracting or combining categorized lists.

That's based on me working this solo as part of my regular job duties here at the P&C. Another option would be to offer free accounts to local bloggers and invite you post along with me. I like this idea, but I'm not sure how best to approach it. I've got no budget to pay anyone (I don't even have a budget to pay myself), and this isn't me just doing this in my spare time -- this blog is part of a commercial enterprise.

So that's really up to y'all. If people want to post directly to a community blog, and if they're willing to abide by a basic standard of conduct, I'm happy to give them the keys.

Depending on how things develop, I'd like to grow this into something with better tools and features. If you've never looked at Roch Smith's Greensboro 101 site, check it out. Roch has mentioned that he'd be willing to franchise what he does to other communities, and I'll follow up on that if there's enough local interest.

One thing to notice about the Roch Smith approach: Roch sells ads, lets local bloggers opt-in to his program, and then splits the profits with them based on the amount of traffic they generate. Each individual blog gets a little check, while Roch gets a bunch of little checks. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What next?
As some of you may have heard, we've got a long-delayed redesign of Charleston.net nearing completion (could be ready in May or June), and we're already in discussions about upgrading our web tools (which could lead to another, more comprehensive redesign). Back in March we created our first recurring staff blogs (GMLc, an ombudsman's blog and a blog for the executive editor), plus an index page, Postscripts, on which to list them.

Within the next few weeks we'll launch a Colleton County news blog (we've got a sharp reporter down there who generates more material than we can get into our first edition), a storm tracker blog (won't be active except when there's a storm out there), and this blog. May will see the return of 2005's Spoletoblog.

We plan to start promoting this stuff whenever we can bring the redesign online, and I hope that will have the net effect of driving more traffic to your sites.

Meanwhile, reaching out to local bloggers is one of the most important things I can do with my time. Some of us here are convinced that news organizations have to engage in active, two-way conversations with their communities, rather than just lecturing them, and this is a rather significant shift in perspective.

In other words, I define the P&C's interest in local blogs this way: If we can encourage the growth of a healthy, lively, self-aware, self-directed local blogosphere, then we'll benefit from that. Maybe not directly (bottom-line revenues), but indirectly (by being involved in conversations, we share in the traffic).

For an example of how this works, take a look at the relationship between bloggers and the local daily in Greensboro, NC (here's a link to the editor's blog -- check out the give and take in his comments section). It's not all lovey-dovey, but it's respectful (most of the time) and genuinely reciprocal. My wife Janet and I got to see this first-hand when we attended the ConvergeSouth conference in October (local bloggers organized it; the paper supported it), and both of us agreed that if Greensboro can do this, Charleston and the Lowcountry can do it too.

So anyway, thanks for reading, and let me know exactly what you think -- gripes included. If it's something I can fix, I'll fix it. If I can't, I'll try to tell you why.

--daniel conover

Comments

[Joan]

Oh, good job! Looks like an impressive collection all put together like that.

Here is one more I just found:
http://home.earthlink.net/~pistons11/index.html
Eternal Reflections

MUSC TIger has one of the best SC state listings I think.

[Agricola]

First, great job putting this together. Second, hats off to the P&C for supporting local bloggers. I'm intrigued to learn about the several blogs already operating at the P&C, and look forward to digging in.

I hope that this inspires others to join the process.

[Heather]

Thank you for your efforts. I was introduced to blogging by a friend of mine, who lives in Nashville. They have a strong blogging community and I was hoping something local would turn up. I mean, Nashville is nice, but local politics are only interesting if they are your own.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, "This is exciting!"

[Daniel]

Joan: You're spot-on about the Tiger's links.

Agricola: We soft-launched those blogs last month, thinking that we'd make the promotional splash when the pending Charleston.net redesign went public.

My theory is that the best way to have a good blog is to have a great comments section, and the best way to have a great comments section is to have an active blogging community. So to be really transparent about it, my evil plan is to do what I can to boost the local blogging community and bet that our staff blogs will benefit from that along with everyone else.

Heather: Glad to have Moncks Corner in the house.

[chip]

This is great! The only thing is, you have me listed as a new father, based on the baby pictures I guess, but I'm not the new father, only a proud friend of a new father. Thanks for the link, and I look forward to seeing this thing develop.

[Windviel]

Bringing Charleston bloggers under one umbrella is a worthwhile project. If the POST-COURIER happens to be holding that umbrella, the more likely we are to extend our reach. Other papers in other towns have begun such relationships. We need not fret that they took steps first nor should we do this simply because others have. We can find our own voice.

The urge to scoop all others is native to the news business, but does not often a good journal (blog) make. We ribbed some of the Midlands bloggers a few weeks back by suggesting that most of their scoops came from THE STATE.

The Conover plan could be the bridge to a nice symbiotic relationship between our historic daily newspaper and the " Holy City " bloggers. What have we to lose by trying? Mr. Conover might, of course, lose his job, but then he could easily hit the road as a Jerry Garcia impersonator. There's a bright side to everything.

[Daniel]

chip: I'll fix that today. Meanwhile, y'all feel free to send me your own versions of the blog descriptions I put up to get things rolling.

Windviel: I'll try to not lose the job, but you know, if there are guys who make their living as Elvis impersonators, why NOT start a gig as a Jerry impersonator?