Dave Winer has been blogging about changes he'd like to see in the way online news works.  Specifically, he's been kicking around an idea called Checkbox News.  I think it's an idea worth exploring, so I was a little surprised when his suggestion about what J-Schools should be teaching journalists was to drop the CMS and teach the graduate students to blog with a commercial solution like Blogger or Word Press.  Both of those are solid technologies, but not something you could build something like Checkbox News on. 

Today, Dave clarified what he meant.   Now he's  suggesting we skip Drupal and START with blogging.  I agree that students need to be blogging day 1.  The only grad student really looking into blogging as a form of journalism is the former managing editor of the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Claire Fortier.   It took her a few weeks to get into a rhythm of posting on a regular basis and build up a readership willing to comment, but Voices is now bringing new users to the site searching terms like "tahoe runway issue" or "tahoe airport environment".  

I created a place for the grad students to blog, but instead of a collection of writing from several members of the cohort about what they were learning during the first semester the result looks more like astoturfing.  I was really hoping the content would look more like what Bradley University multimedia program does for senior projects covering week 1 to the project's opening night. 

Why is it harder to get journalists to blog?  Is it an age/professional status issue?  Does anyone have any suggestions for getting them started?