"Blog Jam"

Jim Stafford and I were invited to take part in "Blog Jam" yesterday. The Society of of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and SouthFloridaMediaJobs.com were the sponsors - treating the group to a nice lunch at Sage Cafe in Hollywood, Florida. The SPJ is full of dyed-the-wool print journalist types. Apparently this "blogging" thing has raised their curiosity to such a high level that they issued a grant to host a group of blogger types to chat about it. This was by invitation only - which I consider an honor. Most likely, I appeared on their radar screen due to this blog garnering the award of Best Blog of 2009 by New Times magazine.

Besides lunch, we enjoyed a round table discussion with about twenty other bloggers - independents along with those employed by newspapers, large and small. We shared information on how to boost traffic to our blogs, common problems and technical issues. A good group of people and one that I think will meet again to exchange information. I found it very informative and am anxious to realize the results of some powerful recommendations.

One thing that I received universal confirmation of is that politics and planning at the local level do not get the coverage that they deserve due to traditional print and broadcast media biases and priorities.