''Paper is still transient''

Interesting comment from "Roanoke Found" (occupation: hunter) a reader of our sister paper, The Roanoke Times, after serious press problems related to a lightning strike delayed publication of the Tuesday morning, June 7, edition until well after noon.

One of the reasons blogging/Radio is so important. Paper is still transient. Its there one minute, but can be gone just as easy. As long as you have power, phones - you have news. People can call in reports of whatever, the broadcasters can then read those reports. Friends call friends to tell them whats going on by them, friends put friends reports on the blog - suddenly you have a variety of sources to choose from for your up-to-the-minute reporting.

National Weather Service does it with the Spotters, nothing more than an extended reporting network.I think thats really where newspapers are running into trouble these days. Newspapers are static - they are a timeslice of events from the time of printing. There is no running reporting, no constant commentary. Don't get me wrong - I love my morning paper, but by 10am Im wondering what else is going on... The websites for most newspapers are still struggling with the static idea. I mean, the printed word has been around what, centuries now. Thats along time to be doing the same thing. It gets encoded into the genetic makeup of the newspaper.