Portland is lucky to have some very strong local blogs. Very strong. Blogs that cover things that are important to residents of the town—and of interest to folks outside Portland, looking in. And even though it’s rare for those blogs to be run by traditional journalists, there is no doubt that they provide coverage and insight that rivals even the most seasoned reporter.
And that’s why The Oregonian is helping lead a new project. Something designed to help expose those blogs to an even broader readership—those folks who look to The Oregonian online—a staggering 2.26 million unique visits and over 22 million page views a month. The project is called the Oregonian News Network.
And it’s run by one of Portland’s premiere proponents of citizen journalism, Cornelius Swart. To goal? It’s an attempt at “connecting the newsroom to the blogosphere.”
The Oregonian News Network is an experiment in developing mutually beneficial partnerships between the State’s largest newsroom and the independent blogging community. Over the course of the next year the project will seek to promote partner stories, coordinate coverage, providing business and journalism training opportunities and building meaningful peer-to-peer relationships.
They’ve been testing the concept with Eugene’s MyEugene, and that’s been working so well, they’re expanding the program. And some prestigious Portland blogs are joining the effort.
Like whom? Like these awesome blogs…
BikePortland
BikePortland.org is a daily, interactive news source that covers the Portland bike scene. From street-level activism to the backrooms of City Hall—we cover the culture, personalities, businesses, breaking news, and important advocacy issues that define America’s most bike-friendly city.
Lund Report
We’re unlike any news source you’ve seen before — the first Web site dedicated to educating Oregonians about the inner workings of the healthcare industry. You can count on us to be timely, provocative, and offer new perspectives. We’re passionate about what we do and are beholden to no one because we do not accept funds from the healthcare industry.
Our news coverage focuses on the major issues confronting our healthcare system – raging costs, unequal access and the lack of standardization to measure quality. With an emphasis on Oregon, this online publication will include national reform efforts.
Neighborhood Notes
Eager to get involved in her new neighborhood, Lynnette Fusilier joined the Pearl District Neighborhood Association in 2002 and quickly found herself managing the all-volunteer organization’s communications email list. She began sending emails about the many goings-on in the neighborhood, but some complained that there were too many emails clogging up their inboxes. Undeterred, Fusilier started reading up on blogs, and decided to start one, so that people in the neighborhood could get the information they wanted, and skip what they didn’t. In 2004, Neighborhood Notes was born.…
Fusilier had stumbled upon an important discovery: no one else was covering community news in the way Portland neighbors really wanted. The positive response to her blog demonstrated that people were beginning to demand more—more thorough, smart, and impassioned coverage of their specific neighborhood. But what they really wanted was more of a level playing field—coverage of all the vibrant communities that make up Portland, not just the central city.
Vancouver, Washington’s Clark County Blog and North Coast Oregon were also named to the inaugural class of the ONN. (No, not THAT ONN.)
The summaries and links to posts from all of these blogs are already running on Oregon Live.
For more information on the project, visit Oregonian News Network. Interested in becoming a media partner? Download the application (PDF).
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Great to see Neighborhood Notes be included; such a fantastic Portland resource.
Glad to hear the new creations are going well. You guys are so lucky to be up in Oregon! One of my favorite places in the world!