Many newspapers think that they are open, but few are like the family-owned Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington state. It uses its front page to invite readers to its editorial conferences and for those who can't make it - webcasts them online to anyone who is interested, writes Stephen Brook.
The WAN congress session prepared by Innovation consultants showed how the conference is webcast live and blogged as it happens.
"It's a response to what I used to call the fortress newsroom. The transparent newsroom is the opposite of that. We invite people into our newsroom, citizens are involved interactively," said editor Steven Smith. They can also turn up in person, as the video showing three very fish out of water looking teen in baseball caps proved.
Smith admitted that there were downsides. "We are inviting people into the process we would prefer not to deal with, the loony tunes. But engaging in the conversation is not the same as ceding authority." The paper's commitment to openess also include: The editor's column about journalism runs on the opinion pages, a local journalism professor critiquing the paper's reporting, five editors write a regular Ask the Editors blog, five bloggers from the community critique the paper regularly on a blog called News is a Conversation and daily summaries of the news conferences are posted online as a daily briefing.
Smith said that the process had improved the newspapers credibility and made it more relevant to readers' lives. It sounds like something the Guardian should be doing. Alan Rusbridger, if you are reading this, how about it?
