Media relies on bloggers for news

On Wednesday, I commented here that an out-of-town real estate group is fixing up several buildings along Armour Boulevard and working to make them into market-rate apartments.

On Friday, the Star decided to cover the story.

This article isn't really meant to pick on the Star (ok, so maybe a little bit), but it has been an interesting transition. Not long ago, the mainstream media was blaming the blogging community for simply picking up their news stories and reposting them and for it hurting the overall value of their media coverage.

Now, after several rounds of staffing cuts, the media seems to be relying on the blogging community to be their eyes and ears for what is going on in particular neighborhoods.

This isn't new of course. The Star has been behind many bloggers in picking up stories and often rely on Tony, Dan or Blog KC, among others, to get some of the top stories.  Congrats to the Star for realizing their limitations given their current staffing and for finding a good way to still get the major news out to a larger audience than any of the bloggers can offer.

Meanwhile, congrats to the blogging community for being a relevant news source in Kansas City.

And thanks to the Star for picking up this story. For all of the news about the Power and Light and other major developments downtown, the improvement along Armour near Troost has the ability to have as much of a positive impact on the urban core than any of those developments -- in a very quiety, cost-effective way.

Comments

[Dan]

You have a great perspective on this. Ultimately, the goal is an informed citizenry, and I'd love nothing more than for the Star to have all the news resources it could possibly want. Unfortunately, corporate economics makes that unlikely.

[Seriously]

Ha ha, your innocence is so pronounced it's almost funny. But I'll explain it for you:

No mainstream media outlet pays much attention to ANY blog around here for three reasons:

1. They're idiots (case in point: Tony, Dan Ryan).

2. They have narrowly focused personal agendas (case in point: Tony, you).

3. They cover shit nobody gives a fuck about (case in point: everybody).

Let's take housing along Armour Boulevard for example. There's a HOT BUTTON topic for you! Something about ten people care about at the moment. That's why it's relegated to "later in the week" status. It's just not that important OR that interesting.

Sum total: Get over yourself. Seriously.

I come here to read you and fucking laugh.

[Brent]

1) Your comments appear to be completely untrue given the common-ness of the mainstream media picking up stories that blogs break 3 days prior.

2) What a shame that no one supposedly cares about low income housing and murders happening in it in this city. Maybe that's been part of the problem and it's about time someone addresses it instead of just being cool with another poor person being shot on Armour.