Welcome to a blog,that isn't a blog,and yet is still a blog

Welcome, KTVT Channel 11 viewers. (Although, regrettably, there are fewer of you than I hoped, as they got our URL wrong in the piece as aired: pegasus.com is a sailboat racing site.)

We're grateful for the publicity from Tracy Rowlett's story on blogging (video only works on Internet Explorer). He and producer John Sparks did a nice job, especially considering that they came in to do a story about blogging and I threw them a curveball.

(I'm particularly grateful that they left out some of my less articulate quotes like "Uhh, I dunno;" "bwa bla blah;" and [silent drooling].)

Viewers who don't already know me should be aware that it's common knowledge that the TV camera generally adds 10 70 pounds.

But, as I feared, the short timeframe of a broadcast news feature may have left some of you with the wrong impression:

As it says on the right side of our page, this blog is not our actual product.

We are going to produce a news service that contains professional reporting on local and neighborhood news in a format that contains many of the open-discussion features of blogs. Both paid journalists and readers will contribute stories to that service, but to the casual user it will feel more like a daily newspaper or TV news site than it will like a blog.

Here's where it gets (potentially) confusing: Around the time we conceived the idea for this news service, I started a blog to vet some of the key concepts; to build buzz; and to draw potential members of our team. On that count, it has worked like a charm, with perhaps the clearest manifestation being tonight's interview.

There's a lot more to it and I encourage you to read this blog, particularly the "Best of" links at left. And if you like what you see, be sure to subscribe -- it's a heckuva deal.

Comments

[Jeanette]

Oh, okay, so I get it now.

It's a blog! ;-)

Seriously, I think it's hysterical how people get so caught up in labeling what everything is that it needs to fit into a small cubbyhole.

And if you try to actually tell them what it is, the only way to not delve into multi-paragraph explanations is to start using "marketingese": "We're evolving a new media paradigm integrating multiplatform delivery methods to strategically deliver targeted hyperlocal content," then just hope everyone smiles and nods politely.

Of course, by the time you finish saying that -- if it's actually within the capabilities of human speech (I'm convinced that marketing people are mostly robots created by an alien intelligence trying to keep us docile, and that normal humans cannot echo their strange speech patterns) -- it'll be 2010 and the whole concept will be outdated.

- Jeanette