Joining Forces: The Four Need to Knows.

Even with new technology, the world demands its news. And with the Internet population shifting their focus onto blog sights such as: blogger, tumblr, etc. News sites are finding themselves going towards that direction.

Before News sites do make this change, there are four key elements they should take into consideration before pursuing it's Local blog.


The first element the News site should ask is: What does their Local Blog need?
Like any good relationship, whether it be personal or business, it is important for both sides to portray what they need from each other, as well as short term and long term goals. The site should ask directly, and this would be a good way to find out if you can supply the needs before committing into the blog.

The second element is be prepared. Whether it is to form a rough draft with what you plan on writing in the blog or just a future plan, always be ready for questions that may form. Another good thing is to invite your partner blog into conversation. Team work will make this run more smooth.

The third element is to understand how the Web operates. Not only just how to function on search engines, but how the blog operates as a whole. You need to take in account how many views are on a page or what drives attention to the blog site. To sum it up, know everything about your site/blog.

The final element is to get your advertising and marketing departments to support you. This is where the entrepreneur comes into the whole aspect of this business. Always ask for team work and support. It is very essential to have everybody feel the same excitement you do about this particular project. If you get them to support the effort, it will run smoothly and quickly into something fabulous.

I believe these four elements are very interesting, since I too blog on my own personal site.( I'll put it down on the bottom if anybody cares to look at it on their free time.--I have to warn you though, its kinda messy right now because I haven't had time to really work on it lately) I never knew that News sites actually did join up with their local blogs, and it makes me kind of want to sleuth around and see if KCCI joins up with a local Des Moines blog.


Works Cited: www.poynter.org
Picture Cited: www.creativecommons.org

Cait's blog:http://thelifeofcait.tumblr.com/

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Tumblr wants your money

The three year old company Tumblr wants your money.

What is Tumblr? It's a service that allows people to quickly and easily set up lightweight blogs. They currently have 4.5 million users.

What makes them stand out is they do not charge their users for their service. They also do not sell advertising on pages they generate.

In the past Tumblr has received millions of dollars from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Together they recently poured another $5 million making them the sole investors in Tumblr.

Now Tumblr wants to sell "digital stickers" to users at a dollar each. Users will buy these "stickers" to spruce up their pages, like bells and whistles.

Peter Kafka says this "strategy is a little more seat-of-the pants, but the bet is that it may be easier to coax money out of people a couple dollars at a time."

Although I had never heard of Tumblr before, I think that it is a great starting place for new journalist to get a start blogging, and get the feel of blogging. Because there is no cost associated with their service, new journalist don't have a huge financial investment, but allows them to start a portfolio of work.

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