In which I talk beat blogging

Pat Thornton of BeatBlogging.org interviewed me about my new Chi-Town Daily News blog, Chicago Health Matters. We spoke on Friday about why we started the blog - it's what you need to do in an online world - and how we hope to enhance our coverage of public health in Chicago (more reader interaction equals more discussion equals story ideas and maybe sources).

I talked to Pat last year about Schoolhouse Talk, the education beat blog I kept at the Journal-World.

Listen to the interview HERE (or you can read about it, too).

CitJ on display

Geoff Dougherty, editor the Chi-Town Daily News, wrote an intriguing article for Harvard's Nieman Reports about the value of citizen journalism and the Daily News' business model. And he included yours truly as an example of how citizen journalism works, referencing a story I covered after seeing dozens of emergency vehicles parked outside a smoldering high-rise in my Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Geoff's story details the successes and obstacles his start-up faces. It's probably true for many CitJ ventures -- Backfence, for one, folded because of some of the same struggles. But his vision is inspiring for communities that feel underrepresented in the media. "The Wire" had a one-liner that may encompass this feeling, when one reporter wondered by a multiple murders were not being covered by the show's version of the Baltimore Sun: "Wrong zip code."

Good luck, Geoff. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Daily News takes off. I wonder if any universities are interested in funding the project.