Call For Community Board Bloggers
There’s been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about the decline of newspapers and whether blogs will be able to pick up the slack as newspapers cut back in general and on their local coverage in particular. We’d like to try to take one step to address this issue by increasing our coverage of…
There’s been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about the decline of newspapers and whether blogs will be able to pick up the slack as newspapers cut back in general and on their local coverage in particular. We’d like to try to take one step to address this issue by increasing our coverage of what’s happening at the community board level. To that end, we’re putting out a call for people who would like to cover their community boards. All we’d expect is that you’d make it to the general meeting every month plus the odd land use, transportation or parks & recs committee meetings when there’s something particularly juicy on the agenda. No formal journalism skills are required. Reliability, attention to detail and some common sense should be all you need. You could be in grad school or a grandparent, we don’t care; and you should own a digital camera. There will be a modest stipend for each report but don’t expect to retire on it. If you’re interested, please email brownstoner@brownstoner.com with “Blogger: CB #” in the header (substitute whatever community board number you want to cover for the “#” symbol). Let’s see how this goes…Update: Thanks to everyone who’s emailed already. Keep ’em coming! We’re going to let the dust settle before getting back to everyone directly in the next couple of days.
“shouldn’t expect to ask people to contribute for write for a “modest stipend for each report”.
robertpear, no one HAS to do it. You don’t like the offer, don’t take the job. Besides, there isn’t NEARLY the money in blogs that was once made in “traditional” media. It’s to Mr. Brownstoner’s credit that he’s offering ANY stipend. He clearly recognizes he won’t attract seasoned, professional journalists and I don’t believe he expects he will.
My original observation had more to do with the rapid transformation of the media paradigm, as newspapers once employed large staffs for reporting that’s increasingly done by bloggers. That may be good or bad – time will tell. But it’s definitely bad news for a lot of people who made their livelihoods in traditional media.
“Big newspapers with large circulations once paid people real salaries, East New York.”
Yes, that’s what I said, Mopar. Big newspapers with large circulations once paid professionals to cover local news. That’s ending now. Meanwhile, “Neighborhood circulars and zines” NEVER covered local events with the sophistication, reliability and professionalism of the average local newspaper.
“This is community journalism by and for ourselves.”
Actually, it’s NOT “journalism,” it’s something else – community blogging, perhaps, but definitely not journalism. As you said, we will see what it becomes. Maybe it will be good overall and even superior to what we have to this point. That’s certainly not guaranteed, regardless of what you may believe. But a new paradigm IS coming. I do recognize that.
Mopar, I disagree. This is not community journalism. Brownstoner is a private enterprise: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/realestate/25cov.html . Some bloggers make money (http://bstoner.wpengine.com/advertise/ ) and shouldn’t expect to ask people to contribute for write for a “modest stipend for each report”. This is just not serious business! Let’s be honest. This is not about community, it’s about money.
Big newspapers with large circulations once paid people real salaries, East New York. Neighborhood circulars and zines did not. As you know. We’ll see what Brownstoner and other blogs become. This is community journalism by and for ourselves.
This is a bad joke: “There will be a modest stipend for each report but don’t expect to retire on it.”
Brownstoner will keep making money with the advertising and we have to write for a “modest stipend for each report”. Are we professional or not? This is clearly not a non-for profit organization, someone is making money and it’s clearly pushing the luck!
Maybe that’s why Brownstoner is asking for “grad school or a grandparent”…
“whether blogs will be able to pick up the slack as newspapers cut back in general and on their local coverage in particular. We’d like to try to take one step to address this issue by increasing our coverage of what’s happening at the community board level.”
Talk about cutbacks….newspapers once paid people real salaries to do what Brownstoner will likely be able to get on a stipend basis. I guess that’s what we call progress. Still, I guess he’s paying SOMETHING.
“Reliability, attention to detail and some common sense should be all you need.”
Objectivity?
Jon,
This is a perfect next step for the site. It would really knit together the home and community connection in a more substantive way than restuarant reviews and such. Community boards make a lot of decisions that affect our homes and neighborhoods and generally fly a bit under the radar even when MSM was healthier. If you pull it off, a good move for small d democracy.
hey what,
i think brownstoner is addressing an issue better than your trolling does.
but thats not news here, is it?
good luck brownstoner. more viewpoints than the politicians give us is a good thing. even if done by amateurs. and since you have a non-trivial number of readers/trolls it should be more interesting than the local rags.
Now there’s a thought…