E-Media Tidbits

The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, continues on its run of introducing components of a "transparent newsroom" program. The latest is the "News Is a Conversation" blog, which debuted this week on the paper's website.

Here's the description: "As part of our effort to increase transparency in journalism, the Spokesman-Review has invited five readers to talk about our news coverage and content on a daily basis: what they like, what they don't like, and what they'd like to see more of. We participate, but the readers lead the conversation here."

Online publisher Ken Sands admits, "We're not sure what's going to happen with this. We have a lot of faith in the bloggers, but we're not sure how well it's going to be received in the newsroom over the long run."

The blog has a comments feature, though Sands is a bit wary of how that might be used. So far, staff members have used the comments to respond to the reader-bloggers' critiques and questions.