Traditional Journalism Meets Blogs with Open Source Media Launch

"Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault." - Henry Grunwald | Time Magazine Open Source Media Company launches their new site tomorrow that is a little bit newspaper and a little bit blog. The idea behind OSM's new site is to take traditional, stylized journalism and mix it up with the open form, personal journal style of blogs. Roger Simon and Charles Johnson co-founded OSM, formerly Pajamas Media - uniquely named based on the idea that blogging is an activity that can be done anytime, even at home in your pajamas. Since its founding a year ago, Pajamas Media has raised $3.5 million from venture capitalists; the new OSM will be supported by ads on the site. OSM has commissioned 70 professional web journalists to begin writing articles on the site. Some of these writers have well-known blogs, others have experience writing for online news sources. The site will center around current news discussion panels featuring blog and non-blog writers. Bloggers and journalists will be evaluated and paid based upon the traffic their articles generate. The site will also link to postings on other blogs, highlighting editor picks. Eventually, the new site will have a feature for "citizen bloggers" to write and post original, first hand accounts and news during national crises and disasters. This could greatly influence the public, perhaps promoting individuals to get more involved and aware of the world outside of their own. Essentially, OSM will feature traditional journalists, reputable bloggers, talk radio specialists and "regular" people all contributing facts and opinions about, well...everything. So what inspired the new project and name change? "As we have gone forward putting together this company, it has become clear to us that we do not wish to be defined merely as gadflies in opposition to mainstream media. We owe our readers and our colleagues something bigger, an alternative to the structures we have lived with all our lives. It's not enough to criticize. We also have to build something new." - Pajamas Media The idea behind OSM is interesting. If successful, OSM could propel the latest style of news sharing, research and reporting that blogs have already begun to change. However, I have to wonder if this blur of traditional journalism and blogging will further move journalists away from their positions as society's watchdogs producing fact-based reporting, and instead solicit a more editorial and biased-style of informing the public. Vist Pajamas Media Read more: Website to Blend Journalism with Blogs