Business news and blogging

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon received some questions from a college student Tuesday about business journalism and blogging, and posted his answers on his blog.

Here is an excerpt:

3) What does business blogging do to the future of mainstream business journalism outlets?

Well, in the best-case scenario, it makes them much better. Mainstream business journalists, if they’re smart, will read a lot of blogs and get a lot of insight from doing so; that’s going to make their journalism better. What’s more, blogs will drive lots of extra traffic to the best business journalists. Today, WaMu is all over the news; the best reporting on that story to date has come from the Puget Sound Business Journal. A few years ago, their story would barely have been noticed outside Washington State; now, anybody can read it, and people all over the country and the world do just that. (When it isn’t behind a firewall, of course.)

Journalists are often very competitive and feel that if anybody else is writing about what they’re writing about, that’s probably bad for them — especially if the rival outlet is very popular. But blogging doesn’t work like that: most of the time, when it’s done well, it’s full of external links, often to original journalism. Blogs are a great way for good journalism to get noticed, instead of being buried and ignored on page B7.

4) What does a business blog offer that is not offered by other media?

Attitude, links, wit, expertise, voice… all of these things exist in other media, but they come together in the blogosphere and are often absent elsewhere.

Read more here.

(DISCLOSURE: The student is in my JOMC 450 Business and the Media class. I suggested she touch base with Salmon for a paper she is writing, but didn’t know he would post his answers for all to read.)