The idea of posts being subject to an Editor isn’t foreign to 99% of bloggers since most use blogging platforms that feature different user levels for contributors, editors, and admins. That’s probably “how come” (I think that means “why”) you can’t edit your comments here. You probably don’t have an account, or if you do it doesn’t include the rights to edit comments.

Is this the first blog you’ve ever read? Seems like an online marketing guy would know this stuff already.

Let’s assume that the Daily Planet wants to incorporate and use citizen journalists.

1. How do you find them?
2. How do you get them to give up (if they have one) their current blog and “work” for you?
3. How do you compensate them?
4. What sort of editing process do you subject them to? This one is a nasty as bloggers type and it appears. How do you convince bloggers to subject themselves to an editing process? How do you get (train) editors to turn around a post in a 1/2 hour? What does the editor of the Daily Planet do when the citizen uses the FUCK word in a post/column/article?

1) For breaking facts and events–Twitter
2) For opinion and punditry–blogs
3) For investigative journalism–newspapers

You’re right, most bloggers don’t have that resource (time) to really cover a story. What I don’t understand is why newspapers are still printing things like accounts of sporting events that are 12 hours old and were watched, blogged, tweeted, and listened to by just about everyone who cares about the details.

Seems like a waste of that precious resource–time.

Why? Because good journalism happens more often when people are paid–well enough–to do it. It rarely happens for free. That’s the biggest stumbling block to citizen journalism. Now, I would totally change my opinion if more individuals were willing to pay others to do good journalism but that’s not going to happen as long as news is viewed a free and readily available content.

So, in other words, you can train as many folks as you’d like how to research and investigate to keep government honest and you’ll develop some great, well-informed citizens but you won’t be creating new journalists unless those same folks can find a way to pay their bills by spending time researching and investigating. That’s why blogs break news so inconsistently as compared to MSMs. It’s not that there aren’t enough blogs; it’s just that bloggers don’t have the resources (i.e. time) to truly dedicate themselves to reporting the way a traditional journalist with a salary and benefits can.

Life always intrudes and limits bloggers–well, except those like Talking Points Memo who have financing.

If you really want to change the game, then develop more venture capitalists who want to pay for good journalism.