Paper creates Web ‘town square’

It’s a journalist’s job to ask questions, but they’re usually aimed at outsiders.

At the News & Record, a 93,000-daily circulation newspaper in Greensboro, reporters and editors are asking tough questions about the paper itself.

The biggest questions: If the paper needs to change to survive, what changes should be made? What can it do, especially online, to make itself the electronic equivalent of a town square?

Seeking the answers, the paper has launched an audacious online experiment.

The News & Record’s website features 11 staff-written Web journals, or blogs, including one by the editor that answers readers’ questions, addresses their criticisms, and discusses how the paper is run.

That puts the paper way ahead of even much larger news organizations. The News & Record’s blogs range from ”just-the-facts, ma’am," to irreverent commentary.

By Ellen Simon, Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/03/28/paper_creates_web_town_square/