KC Star’s blogging guidelines

Adding to the conversation about blogging policies, the Kansas City Star has made public their blogging guidelines for political reporters - “Credibility questions ease as readers embrace political blogs”

At The Star, we tried to make the bar settings clear – but at somewhat different levels for print and online. A pinch of voice and a pound of edginess permeate our postings. But not opinion. Keith Chrostowski, deputy national editor who helped create our concept, set up these rules of engagement:

Editing. We still do it, albeit on the fly.

Tone. It must be light, not condescending or hurtful.

Edginess. We apply it to all posts where appropriate, in an odd way being “fair” to all.

Reality. Entries must be based on something “real” that we can verify.

Response. Everybody gets a chance to respond, although sometimes in a later posting.

Scorecard. The editor keeps a loose score of negative and positive, trying to keep it balanced over time.

I’m not sure exactly how you balance the “edginess” and “light tone” quotient, but whatever works. I’m sure numerous campus news operations will be experimenting with weblogs this year, so these are some useful tips to think about.

Link via Cyberjournalist

I’ll also throw in this reminder: You need to spell out the expectations regarding “inside baseball,” i.e., internal media gossip, chit-chat and behind-the-scenes tales. Nothing is going to destroy trust in a news staff more than having someone post a nasty weblog entry about a staff meeting for all the World Wide Web to see.

I have yet to come across a fully-developed weblogging policy for campus media, although I know several people have been working on one. If you have one at your operation, would you consider sharing with the community?