News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.

By: Jesse Oxfeld The drumbeat of data is con- stant. In January, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 42% of Americans regularly got their news from a newspaper in 2004 (down from 47% in 2000), while 29% got their news online last year (up from 23% in 2001). So rather than simply worrying about these numbers and condemning these trends, as some newspaper folks are doing, John Robinson, the 52-year-old editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., is facing head-on the increased popularity of online news.

Determined to remain relevant to his readers, Robinson and his staff in Greensboro ? notably Lex Alexander, the veteran N&R editor who's overseeing the project ? are overhauling their paper's Web site (at www.news-record.com). They've encouraged blogs, reader feedback, and citizen journalism, opening the paper's editorial processes to outside scrutiny and generally working to build what they call a "virtual town square."

"The goal is ? you know, as I sit here and think about this, it sounds really hokey ? the goal is what every journalist's goal is: to spread the news and to get people talking about the stuff that's important and what's happening in their community," Robinson told E&P back in February, when the project was launching. "If I have to do that online, I'll do it online. If I can do it in the newspaper, I'll do it in the newspaper. We want to help people make smart decisions for their life, and help give them the information they need to participate in democracy."

By early June, the paper was offering some 16 staff-written blogs, along with four podcasts. A redesign of the site is scheduled to be released any day, and then readers will be able to add comments to most articles. Alexander fields story ideas and tips from readers, which he passes on to appropriate editors. And Robinson is currently searching for his first neighborhood columnist, someone to represent a "community of geography" with both a column in the paper and contributions to the site.

This online project has garnered the N&R lots of national attention. In recent months, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press have joined E&P in profiling Robinson and his paper. But Robinson acknowledges that there isn't a great deal of excitement yet in the community. "It's funny," he says. "We're getting this national publicity ... but I'm not sure how many people know this is going on." That's bound to change when the site redesign is complete and a big marketing push kicks in.

But even without the marketing, traffic to the blogs keeps growing ? and more and more comments are appearing, Robinson reports. Readers, in other words, are already entering the town square. -- Jesse Oxfeld