Jon Ortiz’s beatblog, The State Worker, and his users helped force Gov. Schwarzenegger’s hand in making a furlough policy change. State workers in California have to take two furlough days each month as part of an effort to save money. The governor’s office occilated between two d...

Two of our favorite beatbloggers, Kent Fischer and Tawnell Hobbs of the DISD Blog, were recognized by the Education Writers Association for the best multimedia education blog. The Education Writers Association (EWA), the national professional association of education reporters and writers, today ann...

Every journalist has at least heard of the big-shot social networks like Facebook and MySpace and many journalists have signed up for accounts. But one of the great strengths of the Internet are all the niches it allows to flourish. These niches can be great for journalists, and sites like Ning mak...

Ed Silverman, one of the original and best beat bloggers, is leaving The Star-Ledger and Pharmalot. Silverman discussed both lessons he learned from Pharmalot and the reasons why he decided to move on in this week’s podcast. You can find more information about Silverman’s decision here a...

Mary Louise Schumacher, art and architecture critic with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was recently tasked with teaching her newsroom about social media and beat blogging. What worked? What didn’t work? What did her peers think about all this fancy social media? And most importantly, ho...

Eric Berger, the SciGuy over at the Houston Chronicle, has had success building a blog with a strong community around it. Building a community requires hard work and dedication. It takes a blogger who embraces two-way communication. Just writing print......

One of the original 13 beat bloggers, Daniel Victor, is stepping away from his Ning social network that he built for his beat because of a lack of participation. Ning is a service that allows people to set up their own social networks on any topic. Victor called his "Hershey Home," because...

One thing I repeatedly hear from the Beat Bloggers that have networks up and running is that, right now, tending to their network doesn't jive with their current work flow. This is, of course, an issue - what are the daily duties of a beat blogger? How can this be incorporated into their already bus...