The news and the blogs

Tom Ryan, former Newburyport resident and love him or hate him 'personality' who moved last fall to NH in the latest post on his blog waxes nostalgic about Newburyport and The Undertoad.

As we in the city know, The Undertoad was his 'alternative' publication. And as he says in the post, he was either reviled or hailed for what he wrote. By the time I arrived here the reporting had already been toned down considerably (if you consider a headline reading "John Moak is a Liar" toned down).

Recently I was speaking with someone who was one of his detractors, to put it mildly. But she was saying the city needs that third voice once more - perhaps a voice not as strident as Ryan's but definitely that third voice.

You would think that a daily newspaper and a weekly newspaper would be enough for a city of just over 17,000 people.

The Daily News covers, what, 6 communities (Amesbury, Salisbury, Newburyport, Newbury, Georgetown and Rowley)? The Current, the free weekly paper, covers primarily Newburyport and sometimes Newbury. Often the Current and the Amesbury News share stories because there are so many shared stories between the two communities.

We also have the Port Planet, which, by the admission of its proprietors, is published "whenever."

But - I was heartened tonight when a reporter from the Daily News told me he reads the local blogs every day. That means he is paying attention. During my short stint as staff reporter for the Current, the editor of that publication dismissed the blogs as being "just people's opinions."

Well, sure, that's what they are. But I can't tell you how many times I have referred to Mary Baker Eaton's Newburyport Blog for background on what went on before I moved here. More recently, I got 2 story ideas for the Current from posts on Tom Salemi's blog. People drop stuff , sometimes even sort of casually, and you have to be there to pick it up.

Anyone reading Ari Herzog's post about the NHS students who studied the quality of city water vs. bottled water for a science project could have run with that story (they found that, with a relatively inexpensive filter, the water quality between the 2 was basically the same).

And so it goes. Do we need another news source here, what with all the blogging? I don't know - but possibly we do.