The Wall Street Journal has an article today asking if newspapers should sponsor reporters’ blogs. So, let’s address what was said.

WSJ takes example of Matt Marshall, whose blog SiliconBeat, is sponsored by the Mercury News, where he is a reporter. Matt used his blog to raise questions about rumours of the Microsoft acquisition of Claria, a topic he was also covering as part of his regular beat. The only difference was that Matt could say just about anything he wanted on his blog, without an official review from an editor. He could raise points and facts that could not be brought to light in traditional press.

“I could definitely see how in journalism circles people could look at what we do and be a little bit nervous,” Mr. Bazeley says. But “when we sit down to write news stories, we put on a totally different hat.”

SiliconBeat (www.siliconbeat.com) and other blogs like it represent a departure from the just-the-facts tradition of mainstream news reporting… To date, it is relatively rare for newspapers to sponsor reporter-written blogs.

Why is it rare? For a newspaper to sponsor a blog of this sort, it would have to be o.k. with bias, opinions, and a whole range of commentary. A newspaper is traditionally thought of as non-partisan press - unbiased reporting. Although the owners of the press, the reporters themselves and other factors influence the selection and coverage of news in subtle ways making them partisan to some degree, it is rare for the opinions to be overt or controversial.

Read the rest of my article on the Qumana blog…

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