T/S and the new story-building construct

So now a reporter can start blogging at the beginning of a story. And that makes a profound shift in the culture of news: it opens up the process to the public. “Here’s what I think I’ll work on,” the reporter says to the community she covers. “Good idea? Is there something else you think I should do instead? What’s the best use of my time? What do you want me to find out for you? If I do this story, what questions do you have? What do you know? Whom should I call?” As the process continues, the reporter can share what she learns — and doesn’t learn — and the community can help fill in blanks and make the reporting better.

At some point in this process, the reporter likely will write what we’d still recognize as an article. Indeed, writing it before publication opens the possibility of the community still helping by correcting and enhancing.

via News(paper) in the cloud « BuzzMachine.

Sounds a lot like what 307 credible and knowledgeable T/S contributors are doing right now through our managed commenting system, minus, of course, publishing articles in a newspaper. But there’s always the possibility of syndicating their content to newspapers.