7 Ways a Blogger Can Add Value to News Conversation
// July 13th, 2010 // View Comments // Internet, News
First of all these are not my ideas but I wanted to share them with my readers as well. These tips are courtesy of Marshall Kirkpatrick, technology journalist for Read Write Web. I frequently listen to his “audio thoughts” podcast or cinchcast. I highly recommend following him on twitter and cinchcast. You will get an insightful look on his thought processes In his most recent recording, Marshall discussions the seven ways a news blogger can add value to a news conversation.
1. You can be First
If you are first to comment or write about a breaking topic or news event, you are sure to get lots of traffic assuming its a topic people are interested in reading.
2. You can be Funny
Oh yes! Funny is the Number 1 thing women look for a man and there are more women on the planet then men. So there you go 
3. Synthesize / Summarize / Clarify
Do so in a way that the conversation can be really used. This is key, especially for topics that are not easily digestible to the average reader. If you can take a complex topic and summarize it into layman’s terms, other news sources will go to you or at least copy you. Especially if you are First and Funny.
4. Curate other high quality perspectives
Curation seems to be all of the buzz today. Many of us out there don’t want to scour the net to find every single source over a single topic so we go to certain blogs that do all of the grunt work to find the best sources and put them all together.
5. Add new details
Add new details to an existing conversation.
6. Add a new perspective to the story
Find a new angle to a story that all the other stories out may have overlooked.
7. Writing in a more compelling way
Mechanically you put the writing together in a more compelling way than anybody else.
I’m sure Marshall was “thinking out loud” with he recorded this for an upcoming blog post so expect a more detailed writeup from him on Read Write Web. At the end of his recording he asked the audience for more tips, so if you have more tips for him, be sure to send him a reply on twitter.
Below is Marshall Kirkpatrick’s cinch
I will try blogging while I’m there. If you want to keep tabs on me, be sure to watch my 
