Guided Assignment--Interview with a Blogger

For this assignment, I chose Gregory Holeman's blog, GregoryHoleman.net.  Holeman writes very often witty observations from Springfield, MO.  He is a writer, with longtime involvement in national and regional magazines.  I found his blog to be insightful and interesting, so I was excited to see what he had to say to our proposed questions.  

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to include everything or make this into a story, but I felt that since this is a blog, and a little more relaxed, I'd just let you see what exactly he responded:

My first question, "Do you consider yourself to be a journalist?" was  answered, "Yes, I am a journalist. I even have a diploma from a journalism school, if that means anything these days. I am also an independent writer and magazine editor, so most of what I do is reporting and analysis (or editing) paid for and published by mainstream media. The blog is a small part of what I do, a self-indulgent pastime that doubles as a minor publicity tool for my writing career. 

Would I be a journalist if the blog was the only thing? That's a really interesting question—one that may not matter much from a practical point of view. Even though they're not connected to a newspaper, TV station or whatnot, there are a few local blogs that do some very good stuff that you might have found in a traditional newspaper or culture magazine at one time. Randy Turner's reporting on campaign finance and Bureau of Mockery's satire of the right wing come to mind. Turner, of course, is an ex-newspaper editor, and the guy behind the Bureau sells car engines for a living."

2.  How would you compare the way you write with the way other journalists (in the news) write?  

Holeman replied, "There's not a lot of daylight between how I write on gregoryholman.net versus in a local magazine or newspaper feature. As a magazine person, I strive for storyline, depth, context, accuracy and flair in my writing. You can find these qualities in traditional newspaper features, too. On the other hand, speed, accuracy and concision is the name of the game for reverse-pyramid newspaper and broadcast writing, and I'm not a breaking-news person."

3.  Do you think you do original reporting?  What kind, if so?  

Holeman's response was: 

"Original reporting is a costly, time-consuming form of created intellectual property, so I'm unwilling to do it unless there's a bang for my buck. For this reason, the blog doesn't really contain Q & As, interviews, or much in the way of news/features.

It's a lot cheaper to do analysis using all the information available on the Internet. All it costs is time. I collect primary and secondary sources in order to synthesize a point about whatever I'm writing about (often something in the local news), and I always try to back up my arguments with facts from major reputable sources, e.g., the Census, major international news organizations.

The funny thing is, I've actually been meaning to blog more fun things like book reviews and especially recipes, as food always draws a lot of visitors to the site and racks up a few more cents from Google Ads."