West Seattle Blog has another reason to celebrate this holiday season. The news site celebrated its third anniversary on Christmas Eve. That's a long time to be blogging! In the past three years, the site has grown into a model for new neighborhood news - and probably inspired quite a few other aspiring bloggers. Founder Tracy Record resigned from her journalism job at KCPQ-TV in 2007 to work on the blog full time, and West Seattle has embraced her efforts. It's always impressive to see their extensive coverage of community issues - just look at their latest weather coverage.
Adds Tracy Record in comments: "Just for the record ... we don't "blog." We publish a neighborhood-news site that happens to be in blog format. So many different kinds of writers produce blog-format sites, with so many varieties of content, that I am crusading to get people to stop using "blog" as a verb ... makes no more sense these days than using "newspaper" as a verb ... Eventually, I hope, even the format won't be worthy of mention - it will simply be a matter of what you publish, or what you write for."
Adds Tracy Record in comments: "Just for the record ... we don't "blog." We publish a neighborhood-news site that happens to be in blog format. So many different kinds of writers produce blog-format sites, with so many varieties of content, that I am crusading to get people to stop using "blog" as a verb ... makes no more sense these days than using "newspaper" as a verb ... Eventually, I hope, even the format won't be worthy of mention - it will simply be a matter of what you publish, or what you write for."
Happy post-Christmas! Thanks very much for being kind enough to mention our anniversary. Just for the record ... we don't "blog." We publish a neighborhood-news site that happens to be in blog format. So many different kinds of writers produce blog-format sites, with so many varieties of content, that I am crusading to get people to stop using "blog" as a verb ... makes no more sense these days than using "newspaper" as a verb. (The word "blog" is in our name because I didn't realize all this when we started the site three years ago, but eventually it will morph.)
And this IS journalism, so I didn't resign from journalism - just switched from old media to new media. There are journalists who publish blog-format sites, lawyers who publish blog-format sites, artists who publish blog-format sites, diarists who publish blog-format sites, activists who publish blog-format sites, advocates, etc. etc. etc. Eventually, I hope, even the format won't be worthy of mention - it will simply be a matter of what you publish, or what you write for.
Anyway, thanks again for the nod; we're having a great time, and have hit new traffic heights (as I'm sure KING5.com and maybe CR) during the weather coverage ... it's very gratifying to be able to provide information that helps people immediately and directly. And the most wonderful part of all this is the fact that WSB'ers by the hundreds have served as true "collaborators," which is the word we have been using for them all along - they have been sharing information, photos, ideas, and camaraderie.
Best of luck in 2009 to you at Citizen Rain, and to us all!
Tracy,
Why all the image self consciousness? The definition of blogging is: to make entries in a web log. You're a blogging blogger and your web site is a big fat blog. It even says so at the top. The average reader doesn't care what you call yourself and they won't start calling it "blog-format neighborhood news site." It's just easier to call it what you titled it - A BLOG! Me thinks you obsess too much.
If you don't want to be known as a blog then maybe you shouldn't call yourself one.
ce n'est une pipe.
Get off you high hat. A blog is a blog, sheesh. Maybe three years of kudos has gone to someone's blog head.
Tracy provides a great service for the West Seattle hood. Her site is invaluable for weather related emergencies, missing pets, crime sprees etc. I understand what she's saying about it not being a blog, but unfortunately, there's not really a better word for it yet. A blog is one person's stories, rants, points of view etc., whereas WSB is a community news site. It's much more along the lines of the King5 or TechCrunch sites than a traditional blog. Maybe we should call it the West Seattle Community Pages? Anyway, Tracy, keep up the good work!
Thanks, and I look forward to reading your blog.
Rose.