Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Richmond has 10 community blogs now underway

What has the potential to become a potent network of independently published community blogs continues to form in the Richmond area. Now there are 10 such web sites.

While I'm watching this trend with great interest -- as a longtime alternative media advocate -- I suspect some of the publishers in the mainstream media are less than happy about it. In fact, some seem to be in a near-panic. And, for good reason. Since newspapers and broadcasters have been running less and less local news, as a national trend, they have left a gaping void that the community blogs seem prepared to rush into with fresh enthusiasm and new technology.

The first community blog I noticed in the area was one up in Charlottesville, started by Waldo Jaquith a few years ago. It is cvillenews.com.

Later, in Richmond, John Murden got the ball rolling with his Church Hill People’s News. Ross Catrow was next with his West of the Boulevard News. The others now running include: All Things Shockoe, Carver & Jackson Ward News, Fan District Hub (published by your truly), Hills and Heights, Near West End News, North Richmond News, Oregon Hill and Petersburg People’s News.

No doubt others are on the drawing board.

So, while some bloggers continue to focus a great deal on the contrived little battles that routinely erupt within the fractious Virginia political blogosphere -- games which usually have little or no effect on anyone outside that peculiar realm -- others are now looking to interact with/serve the community in which they live in the real world, where the voters actually live, too.

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