The blurring line between blogger and journalists


The other day Duncan wrote about how a group of ex-Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalists have banded together and created a new Seattle oriented news site called Seattle Post Globe. While the story in of itself was interesting it got me thinking about something.

For as long as there have been blogs there has been this contention; especially among old media journalists, that blogging was in no way comparable to the work they did. Blogging was just a bunch of wise-asses who couldn’t string a coherent sentence together if their lives depended on it. It was the overriding opinion that nothing could supplant good well sourced journalism – which blogging definitely wasn’t.

But oh how times have changed in the last five years or so. Newspaper after newspaper is either seeking the protection of Chapter 11 or just shutting the doors. Journalists are seeing the once proud profession being thrown into disarray as the advertising foundation that supported their work is in itself in a state of confusion. This is leaving many journalists wondering what the hell they are suppose to be doing next.

Out of these ashes though many journalists are banding together and relaunching themselves on the web. Just as the new Seattle Post Globe gets its feet wet in this new world we have seen the same thing happen with journalists from the former East Valley Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News. The interesting thing is as you look at these new journalist offerings is that they are built around the same format as blogs.

This of course raises an interesting question. Have these journalists become what many of their profession despise and blame for the fall of newspapers?

Have they in effect become bloggers?

If this is indeed the case then what makes them any different from those of us that have been blogging all this time?

As we see more and more of this type of thing happening; and trust me we will, has the line separating journalists and bloggers finally been blurred beyond recognition?

Have bloggers and journalists / columnists finally become one and the same?

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