I think blogs will take on more significance in the coming years. Many newspapers don’t utilize them properly. They let anyone and everyone have a blog about anything. But blogs by people who really know a beat and have great insights can be really powerful.

It seems like most of the blogs out there right now that people like are not found at traditional media outlets. Traditional media outlets have tried their best to get it wrong.

Perhaps, you are right that our generation will like blogs because they are more personal. In a sense they are more real, and our generation does like that.

As journalists we have to be an ideal when we write stories. We have to aspire to be as objective and personalityless as possible.

I would like to see more newspapers employing community bloggers that are very knowledgeable about certain subjects.

Our generation is obsessed with the cult of personality, and blogs allow for journalists to express themselves. Maybe it involves a bending of journalism ethics, but I think you can write a perfectly responsible blog while still incorporating your personality and, yes, even some of your own thoughts and opinions (see capitol ideas, john micek’s morning call blog on state politics). And it can draw readers not because of what is said, but who said it and how they said it.

Honestly, I think they’re a great way to free journalists from the conventions of traditional articles and take advantage of the Web’s 24/7 nature and connectivity.

I think blogging can certainly help papers out when done right. I like when newspapers get experts from the community to write about topics that people care about. Blogging can be a power tool.

Unfortunately, many newspapers are loaded with bad blogs that aren’t on topic, serve no purpose and sometimes are just embarrassing. Part of that is not understanding technology and how to best utilize it.

I think you are right that young people don’t see what they do on facebook or Myspace as blogging. To them it’s a social network where they get to share their thoughts and meet new people.

I think facebook’s core audience (college students) aren’t that excited about blogs about news and information. That may change in time. I’ll have to do some new research to see how things have changed.

I think if a newspaper understands that it can be the focal point of a community and is willing to use technology to its fullest extent, it can make a lot of money and really serve its readers.

It’s clear that younger people want social networks. I haven’t seen a newspaper understand and implement that though.

On blogging, I don’t think you and I are far apart. If you search my site for “personal journalism,” you’ll get some idea of why I think blogging is important for newspapers.

We need to change the way we communicate online. Blogging can be a tool for learning that new language.

I wonder if young people aren’t more turned onto blogging than your questions might uncover, or they might understand. There are all kinds of young people blogging on myspace, facebook and livejournal, but I’m not sure they call it blogging. It’s certainly not about news and information the way us older folk understand it.

There’s all kinds of stats that show each generation reads newspapers less and less, but I’ve never seen anything to suggest that people don’t retain an interest in community and news across generations. It’s sometimes just different delivery, different packaging and different content, but it’s still news and information.

Newspaper.coms have an opportunity, I think, to learn the new medium and create ecosystems that have cross generational appeal. Blogging is just one tool to advance our own learning process about what’s really going on.