Attack of the Mommy BloggersMarch 25th, 2009
Print journalists find stiff competition from mommy bloggers
One thing you never want to do is make a mom mad. The newspaper distribution manager learned that lesson when he threatened to end my mother's porch delivery.
Well, guess what, folks? There's another riled up momma out there. Her name is Kelby Carr. She's the publisher of Investigative Mommy Blogger.
It's one of the coolest sites I've found featuring unique online journalism.
Mommy Blogger
This site pursues and promotes investigative reporting. It has a team of more than 40 moms who can assist in researching, writing, analyzing and spreading the word about topics important to mothers.
For example, one report focuses on the dangers of shopping carts to small children.
Carr is a professional journalist who became a Web entrepreneur after she got fed up with the direction of the newspaper industry. She intends to prove that bloggers can beat newspapers at their own game and believes her site offers some strong competitive advantages.
"Most newspapers don't have a team of reporters around the globe, for example, like we do. The model of Investigative Mommy Blogger is essentially the opposite of the model at newspapers. Instead of having fewer and fewer people doing more and more tasks, IMB has several people divvying up the tasks of one reporter," she says.
Utah journalists Who Jumped Ship
Another problem newspapers are facing is an exodus of talent. Many experienced journalists have left the news business either because they have been laid off or because they can make a lot more money somewhere else.
Angie Welling, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Corrections, started her career at the Deseret News. After earning a master's degree, she ditched journalism and got one handsome ransom.
Her annual salary bounced from $45,000 to $70,000.
But she remains a reporter at heart.
"I will always firmly believe that journalism fills a vital role as not only a guardian of the First Amendment but also as an important check and balance on government and bureaucracy. With newspapers paring down all over the country, veteran journalists are leaving the industry -- voluntarily or otherwise -- and the result is a staggering lack of in-depth reporting," Welling says.
Lisa Roskelley, spokeswoman for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., is another high-profile former journalist. Just so ya know, 'cause knowing is half the battle.
Newspapers fight back
Andy Howell does not take any of this doom and gloom lightly. He is the executive editor of The Standard-Examiner in Ogden.
Howell says his 60,000-circulation newspaper is faring better than most of its beleaguered brethren. He credits this to a few factors: less debt, smaller staff, and a better online strategy.
"Basically what we try to do is to produce content that can be used across multiple platforms - print, online, television, mobile, social networking, etc. The idea is that the content would still be produced at a single source, but reconfigured by the originator for the corresponding platform," he says.
Howell acknowledges the news business is changing fast. His paper is in the process of training its staff on social networking and online marketing. And it just converted its old archive room into a video lab.
"I think you'll see the Standard progress into an information/marketing company that produces a newspaper, rather than a newspaper that does all these other things on the side," he says.
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