Journalism can be reported and written in blog format; that’s what we do at our successful community news site (which only has “blog” in its title because I didn’t know any better when I started it with the intention of having a chatty little site … which grew into something much more) – but contrary to the statement about “bloggers” seldom going out into the field, we DO go out in the field, ALL THE TIME, and the site is the sole support of my husband and me (30-plus years in “old media” journalism between us). We break stories in our community daily. Sometimes hourly. And of course we are far from alone in running a blog-format community news site.

If you really aren’t doing any original reporting, the question is – are you a community news site, or are you an aggregator, or maybe a discussion host? It may not matter as long as you are doing something that needs doing. But please, if I may beg you one last time, realize that saying “bloggers need journalists” continues to perpetuate the erroneous perception many people have that there is some sort of difference. And for some of us, trying to cut through the overgrowth of that erroneous perception is like machete’ing through a jungle.

P.S. Looking at the linked “throwing in the towel” post … fwiw, selling ads does not mean you have to compromise integrity. On the contrary, selling ads enabled us to turn our site into a business so we could spend 24/7 reporting the news, sharing the information, and facilitating discussion, rather than working on it around the edges of other jobs. And we have some “best practices” (such as, EVERY TIME we mention a sponsor, whatever the context, we identify them IN THAT VERY SENTENCE as a sponsor) that have really helped us reiterate and protect that integrity.

Anyway, keep up the good fight … there’s so much to be reported and shared, most days I wish sleep were optional rather than mandatory.

You are quite welcome. I think that we all seek inspiration elsewhere – it’s the implementation that’s challenging and time-consuming. Your post really resonated with me.

I must give credit where credit is due — Jeff Jarvis preaches what I practice. I essentially adopted his “blogging philosophy” at buzzmachine.com