At first when I read Greg Lindsey's Business 2.0 article about Arianna Huffington's new blog I had a flashback to inside.com and got all riled up about the term blogging being misused to describe yet another online publishing venture using a blogging engine as a backend. But it seems that this is a blog of opinion only with Barry Diller sharing his favorite movies or thoughts on a political issue. I can't say I haven't thought of putting together something similar on a different topic - in fact this makes me think I should move forward on my idea - but there is something to this that traditional publishers should think about.
The trick is getting people to contribute on a steady basis, compensation isn't really an issue it is more about ego. In writing the article Lindsey has gotten hold of the e-mail solicitation that Huffington sent out and there is a nice line, "There will also be times when we e-mail you, asking for your take on a
breaking story or issue that seems to be in your wheelhouse of interest
or expertise. Picture the greatest Charlie Rose panel ever assembled --
and we'll be able to put it together instantly." So just a thought here but how about having guest commenters on articles? A select group of people could be solicited for reactions to news or articles. Suppose AO Scott reviewed a movie and under that were comments and some of those comments came from influential taste-makers? (Would that undermine or complement the reviewer's column? In a world with meta-critic and rotten tomatoes, does it really matter?) What about sports coverage? Hard news? Think of this as an interactive letters to the editor or rather editor to the article for each piece. Or perhaps our papers could emulate what The Guardian does and blog about itself in a nearby section. How about pulling a few blog comments onto the story page?
