Zombie Journalism

The Washington Post’s new social media policy for staff has more than enough eyebrow-raising ‘dont’s’ that are sure to scare any staffer away from the social web and seeks to turn off great connections with sources and readers.

Online comments are a gigantic albatross for newspaper sites, but I believe we need them. Instead of panicking, we need to ride out these early days of commenting and learn to become better community managers.

We shouldn’t judge the future or value of “hyperlocal” news from the Washington Post’s failed experiment with LoudonExtra. Instead, we need to actually understand what it really means to be hyperlocal in reporting – and take note of sites doing it right.

The Washington Post took on Gawker for alleged copyright infringement this week in a battle of the blogs. Here’s why the Post writer was wrong – and why the debate itself is just a mere sideshow to the real problems for newspapers online.