At last year’s BlogNashville conference, prominent and recently-in-the-news blogger Bill Hobbs mentioned that “if they’re smart,” media outlets will embrace the idea of blogging as a way to talk to their readers and find even more information for their stories—stories which might not actually be finished simply because, say, a newspaper has gone to press. Readers can “report” information via posts and comment threads, creating an online version of a town hall meeting—one that keeps going 24 hours a day.

Because literally anybody with a computer and Internet access can cheaply and quickly become their own publishing house, it’s easy to dismiss citizen journalism as flawed. Each blogger seems more biased than the last, and it’s often difficult for readers to know who or what to believe. But at its core, a blog is simply a piece of technology and, like all pieces of technology, the way it’s used determines the way it’s perceived. While the impression of bloggers as biased, slanderous, unprofessional hacks still carries some weight in light of many bloggers’ sloppy “let’s play with our new toy” approach, as the Rocky Mountain News’ Linda Seebach pointed out at BlogNashville, “bloggers are journalists when they are doing journalism” and there’s no reason why media outlets can’t use blogs to enhance their products, too. For example, stories appearing on YourHub.com also appear in the Rocky Mountain News’ print edition. The paper’s journalists reprint the “most interesting and topical” submissions to the site and, while most of the stories chosen are on the lighter, more hometown-ey side, the paper’s regular, harder news sections could also benefit from this technology.

As Glenn Reynolds—whose Instapundit.com blog is one of the most widely read on the planet—pointed out at BlogNashville, a group of bloggers dedicated to, say, the actions of a local school board could provide vastly more coverage and insight into their topic than any local media outlet—bound by staffing and budget restraints—ever could. A local media outlet could, however, act as an aggregator and editor and incorporate a local blogger group’s work as part of their existing product. If traditional media outlets don’t take advantage these sort strategic partnerships, Reynolds said, consumers will bypass their products even more than they already are.

According to John Burke of the Editor’s Weblog, media outlets like newspapers, for example, “have historically tried to ‘be all things to all people,’ a model that works in a world with limited choice. But circulations have been steadily dropping for decades not because their content is poor, not because their news is irrelevant, but because people have more choice.” While I might take issue with his definitions of quality and relevance, his reference to choice is dead-on.

The major force behind the growth of the Internet is the interactivity buoyed by this choice. If media outlets were to embrace the interactive nature of blogs, they’d find themselves reconnecting with the public and, in turn, regaining some of their lost market share. An editorial page, for example, should not be considered just another piece of “product,” but rather a place to start a conversation. This conversation can serve many purposes—debate, clarification, correction, entertainment, etc.—but perhaps its most important (and previously untapped) purpose is that of a lead