Bloggers creaming off newspaper readers

Blogs written by so-called citizen journalists are increasingly challenging newspapers for readers. According to a recent study by Forrester Research, blogs and newspaper websites now have the same audience share - about 17 per cent - among internet users between the ages of 18 and 24.

Charlene Li, a Forrester analyst, said: "Newspapers still have a larger overall audience. But blogs are catching up quickly."

Initially caught off guard by blogs, newspapers and old-guard news agencies are now racing to present their own. So far, the results have been mixed. While papers such as Texas' Austin American-Statesman are using blogs to give readers a news voice they never had before, other papers such as the Washington Post are struggling with everything from charges of plagiarism in their blogs to being labelled with the word every editor dreads: boring.

Last week, the Associated Press signed a cross-marketing deal with blog search-engine Technorati. Technorati agreed to scan for blogs that include links to AP stories. The search engine will then create a web page where it will display the blogs in addition to original AP stories.

The deal follows similar agreements between Technorati and Washington Post Co, owner of the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine.

Also in recent weeks, the Arizona Republic, Des Moines Register and San Jose Mercury News were among a group of publishers that signed up for BlogBurst, a blog syndication service. Under the terms of the agreement, newspapers can publish any of the more than 1,500 blogs featured by the service.

The Austin American-Statesman rounds out the newspaper's travel coverage with one of BlogBurst's travel blogs. Jim Debth, who manages the Statesman's website, said connecting with a paper's readers now means including their voice. Besides BlogBurst, which is operated by Austin-based Pluck, the paper also offers tools on its website that enable readers to create their own blogs, which can then be posted on the paper's site.

Since starting the latter service last September, the newspaper has seen readers create 875 blogs, which are recording about 2,500 page views per day, according to Debth. He acknowledges the blogs have yet to attract huge audiences but the point is to offer readers a chance to connect with likeminded people.

Debth said: "The idea behind this is to create more of a community. You create community and you'll increase traffic and loyalty."

Publishing content produced by non-professionals comes after scores of newspapers asked their own editorial staffs to write blogs. At many publications, the results were mixed. In March, the Washington Post was heavily criticised for hiring Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide, to write a blog for Washingtonpost.com without doing more to check his writing credentials.

Three days after hiring Domenech, the 24-year-old resigned amid charges that he plagiarised material he had written for other publications. Domenech denied that he knowingly committed plagiarism, the Post reported.

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, recently announced it was discontinuing the column and internet blog of Michael Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, because he posted comments on his blog and other online sites under assumed names. The newspaper said that while Hiltzik did not commit any ethical violations or print any inaccuracies, he violated the Times' policy of writing under pseudonyms.

Another hurdle for newspapers is making sure their blogs don't bore readers, said Patrick Williams, managing editor of the Dallas Observer, a weekly publication. He says that too often newspaper blogs are filled with leftovers from stories too long to fit in the paper that day.

Williams wrote: "They're filled with all the news not fit for print. They're a place where writers go when reporting is just too hard. Let us pray... that blogs can go back to what they should be: teenagers and college students talking about sex and music."

Despite his distaste for news blogs, Williams says he values news and he believes that news stories are what drive the need for blogs and not the other way around.

He said: "If I were the king of journalism, I'd force newspapers to stop publishing for a month. Then let's see what would happen to blogs. Facts have to be the basis of opinion at some point. And if a blogger is collecting facts, then at what point does the publication cease being a blog and become an internet news site?"

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com