Community blogs

Something many news organizations are adding to their Web sites to generate interest from the public are community blogs.  We've done a lot with staff blogs, but are now just getting started adding community members to the discussion.

Our first blogger is John Esyter.  How does one easily define John?  Hmmm...tricky.  He has a strong knowledge and interest in civics and politics.  He helps organize an annual trip to Washington D.C. for a group of local high school students.  He started his new blog on Gazettextra in time for the Fourth of July.

His enthusiasm for civics and commanding knowledge of the related topics make him the ideal candidate for a community blog.

In some ways, we view community bloggers as columnists.  These are people with more than just an opinion...they have credentials to back them up.

So, who else will be a community blogger?

The only other blogger I can discuss right now is a soldier with a local military unit recently deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq.

These are our testers.  We anticipate adding more in the near future.

It will be interesting to see where these bloggers take the online converstaion.