QCBloggers page

http://qconline.com/qcbloggers/

I'm know I'm late commenting on this, but I was trying to decide what I think about it. I'm sure most, if not all of you have already checked out QCOnline's page that essentially acts as a blog digest, with links to the newest articles. If not, I've added the link to my link bar over to the right. Basically I've decided its a good thing. I've been looking for a way to do something similar for my own use, possibly using the RSS feeds, so I could immediately see when new posts and comments appeared on the local blogs I read. Due to my general lack of RSS skills, that didn't happen. Now we have QCOnline providing us with an easy to use list of new blog posts. I still wish there were an easy way to see when new comments have been posted anywhere on the local blogs, but I'll just have to keep looking.

There are a few things, however, that bother me about this system. I would have a lot more objections to it if QCOnline didn't have any blogs of its own, but several of their reporters, especially John Beydler, are fairly avid bloggers. This at least means they're not just leeching off the independent blogs. I had a meeting with someone from QCOnline a few months ago, in November I believe, regarding blogs. I won't go into details because I'm not sure if this is their final answer, but I knew something like this was coming. I absolutely can't fault it from a business point of view, because they are providing a valuable service, and being compensated by the few AdSense dollars they'll get.

I'm not sure if anyone saw, but in the QCOnline article about the Blackhawk fire, there was a link at the bottom that said something to the tune of "More pictures at QuadCityImages" with a link to this blog. While I must admit I was tickled to see that on there, and it gave me my highest number of page views ever, I could see it as maybe becoming a slippery slope. Traditional media could ask themselves, "If local bloggers will supply the pictures, why bother sending our own photographers?" Obviously this is an unrealistic scenario, because myself and other local bloggers can't be at every event, and I'm far from a trained photographer. I don't really have much of a concrete conclusion from this, except that I want the folks at QCO to know that I have no problem with anything they've done so far, including linking to my blog for the photos. The QCBloggers page if anything will encourage more participation in the local blogs, so its definitely a good thing. Anyone have any thoughts about blogs, mainstream media, and cooperation therein?