Tuesday, November 15, 2005

From Yahoo News:

Web Site to Blend Journalism With Blogs
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer

NEW YORK - A media Web site scheduled to debut Wednesday will seek to blend traditional journalism with the freeform commentary developed through the emerging Web format known as blogs.
Some 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM — short for Open Source Media.
OSM will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.
The ad-supported OSM site will also carry news feeds from Newstex, which in turn receives stories from The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service and other traditional media organizations.
"We're deliberately trying to do something new by affiliating blog and mainstream people," said Roger L. Simon, a blogger and the venture's co-founder.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 9 percent of adult Internet users in the United States have created their own blogs, and about 25 percent read them. The audience tends to be more influential: blog postings can affect what news organizations cover or politicians discuss.
Many details of OSM remain unsettled. For example, OSM wants to create a mechanism for citizen journalists, including bloggers, to submit original news during natural disasters, civil unrest and other newsworthy events. Simon said organizers still have to come up with ways to check submissions for accuracy.
Initially, OSM will create blog-like discussion panels surrounding major news events, with three or four bloggers and non-blogging experts chosen to contribute.
Although Simon and co-founder Charles Johnson are often described as conservative, Simon said the site will transcend labels and include bloggers of all political leanings.
OSM was founded last year as Pajamas Media, a play on bloggers' ability to opine from home at all hours, day or night. It has raised $3.5 million from venture capitalists.

2 Comments:

Blogger sbma44 said...

It's a nice idea, but the guys implementing it are a bunch of conservative assholes -- nobody believes they'll actually deliver on their claims of bipartisanship. And it looks like they're probably going to get sued, since they've helped themselves to someone else's trademarked company name.

(this is your brother, btw)

11:27 AM  
Blogger Beth said...

Not sure about the company name. I'm just siked to see ideas like this getting mainstream attention. I only happened upon this cause I had to sign in to Yahoo for work and it was one of their top headlines. I'm sure I don't understand the whole scope of things like this as well as you but I do know that half the people I talk to don't know what a blog really is, so I think coverage like and initiatives like this are a step in the right direction.

8:34 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home