~ Contributed by Hope Squires ~

Daniel Schorr is one of my favorite NPR reporters. I just hope he doesn’t mind me announcing that in a blog. Schorr has some strong opinions about what blogging has done to the news industry. In a recent Q&A with The Sacramento Bee, he decries the lack of professional rigor in the new world order that empowers citizen journalists and bloggers to share their opinions: “A person like me who believes in the tradition of a discipline in journalism can only rue the day we've arrived at where we don't need discipline or anything. All you need is a keyboard.”

While I hope I’m half as sharp and sassy as Schorr is when I’m 91, I do think he’s a bit hard on our blogging community. I like the personal empowerment and idea sharing that blogging enables. I don’t think that every blog out there is well-written or worth reading (at least, not by me), but I also am not the intended audience for every single blog.

I do think it takes a lot more than a keyboard to have a successful blog. I’m in good company, too. Check out what my colleague Gary Cokins has to say about blogging in the latest issue of sascom magazine. It’s hot off the presses. Oh … did I forget to mention that already?

Personal bias alert: It’s a great issue, in part because it has one of our best cover stories yet: 11 customers talking about their ideas for going big with BI.

In a way, these customers – and others that we highlight in each issue of sascom – are SAS’ citizen journalists. Along with the external thought leaders who contribute to the magazine, our customers speak to our audience in powerful and meaningful ways that can go beyond what any of us SAS employees could tell you about our great software. And you can read about it online or in print.

Which brings me to my next point about Schorr’s Q&A. I heard about his interview from a colleague’s internal blog here at SAS and then read the article online. Living in North Carolina, I’ve never laid eyes on a print copy of the The Sacramento Bee, but I’m now in their database as a subscriber (after all, I wanted to read the whole Q&A).

So, Schorr and I do agree on one thing: the newspaper industry has irrevocably changed. I’m just more optimistic about it. He says, “At my age, I look at it and say, ‘Boy, I'm glad that's for other people.’ I couldn't stand what's going on today (as a reporter). Of course, the changes are partly technological. You no longer have to rely on a great newspaper like the Sacramento Bee or on a television network to get news. You can go on the Web and get anything you need.” The latest
sas

com issue has more about how the newspaper industry is weathering those changes, too, by embracing advanced analytics. Go to the Web for it. Or just wait. It’ll be in your mailbox in the next few days.