Worth of a Blogger:
Apologies for posting on this topic twice. If you weren't a reader of this blog you won't know why I think this is important. But I think it's worth pointing to a short essay by Bob Stepno on South Knox Bubba's blog, which ended this week. Stepno, a journalism professor who moved to the Knoxville area last year, has lots to say on how much Bubba's blog contributed to his community:

• He read the papers, including weeklies I never saw on the newsstands, summarized their stories and linked to them.
  
• He sometimes "covered" public meetings and events in more detail than most local papers, most recently the plans for development of the South Knox waterfront, and for redevelopment of the World's Fair Park area.
  
• He usually provided links to background information that professional news websites rarely offer, out of fear that "customers" will follow the links and not come back to read the ads that pay the bills.

There's much more. When people ask me why I think blogs are something news organizations should be looking at carefully, 'Bubba' was one place I always showed them.