"Neighborhood blogs: the mom-and-pop news business"

Seeing how Pullman is now just a "drop location" to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, the time may be ripe for something advocated by commenters here and reported on by Peggy Sturdivant at Crosscut:

News blogs about Seattle neighborhoods are sprouting like weeds. Their territory can be as small as the blocks immediately surrounding a park or as vast as West Seattle, created to rally against outside forces or in response to a certain event. They can vary from providing news straight-up to being heavily dosed with humor. Still other news blogs are product tests. Some have advertisements, others don't. Neighborhood blogs can even be "killed" and then reborn with advertising and multiuser capability.

The time is coming my friends....

Moscow-Pullman Daily News to Start Blog Sites

Dale Courtney over at Right Mind noticed that Dave Oliveria posted this at Huckleberries Online:

Editor Steve McClure of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News called this morning to ask about newspaper blogs. Seems the Moscow-based paper is going to dip its toe into the blogosphere and Steve was interested re: what we're doing up here. He blurks at Huckleberries Online occasionally. Good guy.

Here is the comment I left on Dale's blog:

Agreed. The Trib blogs are really bad, unless you're an American Idol fan. Total fluff. It has its place, but let's have some hard news too.

The Spokesman does it up right. Dave is a good guy. I urged Nathan Alford to pursue blogs at Dnews.com two years ago as a way for the reporters to provide more coverage and insight on local issues.

It is interesting to note that the Spokesman does NOT allow comments on its online version, only through the blogs. And HBO DOES moderate offensive/spam comments and bans users after being warned (as do you and I, Dale).

I'm guessing based on the open sewer the Dnews.com online comments section has become (which I also warned Nathan about), Steve is looking at better (and perhaps more legally defensible) alternatives to remain competitive with us in the New Media.

Good luck with the blogs, Steve. But unless you get the trolls under control, you'll still have the same problems.