Panelists say newspapers missing opportunity if they don’t “reverse publish” blog

Newspapers are missing an opportunity if they don’t take blogs and other web content and “reverse publish it in print, panelists at a network-journalism conference say. 

"The newspapers have a tremendous asset to reverse publish,” said Dan Barkin, deputy managing editor of the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. “If they don't use that asset, they are missing the boat. And most of them don't." Barkin said anyone who isn’t reverse publishing, should be.  He spoke at the Networked Journalism Summit in New York on Oct. 10, 2006. The event, organized by the new journalism program at the City University of New York, took places in the TimesCenter auditorium of the new New York Times building.

John Wilpers, former editor of the free daily BostonNow, said the year-old newspaper to a chunk of more than 500 daily blog posts and published excerpts. He said early on, he made the mistake of excerpting a blog post with permission. But the author, initially angry, responded to Wilpers’ apology by acknowledging she had been amazed at the positive feedback she got when her words were in print. “It brings them into the fold, they start writing for us, they want print copies,” said Wilpers.

The head of web services for the largest chain of suburban Boston weeklies, commenting from the audience, agreed: "I've long believed that the local newspaper should be the hub of all this activity,” said Howard Owens, of Gatehouse Media.

When a newspaper acquires a local news website, there can be challenges.  Jarah Euston, who abandoned a Wall Street career to move back to her home town of Fresno, Calif., to start the FresnoFamous community website,  sold it to the local daily, the FresnoBee. Afterward, she says, it took the company a period of time to replace the “high touch” service she gave to the members of her online community.

"We did have a backlash when Fresno Famous was sold, and I think we are seeing a backlash, if you have been watching that, with the Newsvine sale,” she said. "You really need to be there for your contributors or else they will find somewhere else."  She referred to the social-news site Newsvine, which was sold this week to MSNBC.com.

The blogs, which succeed best, are those which have a strong individual evangelist, said Dan Pacheco, who works at the Bakersfield Californian, owner of the Northwest Voice online news community and weekly paper.