What’s going on — BIG and small:

• Updated the blog to WordPress 3.0 (Beta-1). Sure, it’s beta, but the next beta should be out within a few days, and the final version should be ready by the first of May.
• Updated the theme.
• Working on a list of bloggers to contact regarding their ideas, suggestions, support, and input.
• Working on a business model that will (ideally) make the co-op self-sufficient, and provide some modest compensation to contributors.
• Working on an editorial model that will allow staff and reader content to be submitted, edited, and available for use by the blogging community.
• Developing the list of categories for stories we will cover. A separate post on those will follow soon.
• Looking at the best options for licensing distributable content.
• Spreading the word. This may seem small, but it is probably the biggest thing that needs to be done.
• Whatever else needs to be done.

If you have ideas or suggestions, please comment here, or email info@blognewscoop.com

If you are new here, and you probably are, here is what I wrote about this site:

I’m looking for original reporting by bloggers to use in a shared setting. That’s why our tag line is “by bloggers, for bloggers.” I’m looking for bloggers who want to contribute stories that other bloggers can use and link to. The only criteria is that it has to be original reporting rather than commenting on the writings of someone else. It doesn’t have to be a big national story. Coverage of a local council race or regional news story, interviews with local politicians or celebrities, and even your personal coverage of local events are all the type of stories I’m looking for.

That sums it up pretty well. For more background you can read here, here, and here.

It’s time to get moving with this project. Tell me how you can contribute. Your ideas and suggestions are always welcome.

While your at it why not follow @BlogNewsCoop on Twitter.

First, about bRight@Night. It is the show I do three times a week on Blog Talk Radio. Visit the show page linked above, and make sure to sign up for a reminder of when new shows are going to air. You can also go to the main page and access the chat room about 15 minutes before air time. Normally the show airs at 11pm Eastern Time. That is subject to change in the future.

Tonight’s live podcast will start at 11:30pm Eastern. I couldn’t schedule a 30 minute show at 11, thus the later start.

The topic tonight will be the Blog News Co-op. You can read about BNC, but the basic idea is this: Bloggers contributing original material and first hand reporting on stories that they cover. I would really like to get the input of other bloggers, and I hope you will join me tonight.

Thanks to Jenn Sierra at Fort Hard Knox for linking to this post and the pod cast.

For various reasons, the incredible amount of investigative online reporting published on conservative blogs in just the last year alone has gone largely uncredited. Let’s fix that here and now:

It is a long and impressive list. Seriously, take a look.

And to those on the list, you are welcome, even encouraged, to submit your stories to Blog News Co-op. Let’s not rest on 2008′s work, but rather break out even more in 2009 and beyond.

(cross posted at bRight & Early)

And that’s just not right.

Bloggers should be a natural resource. Why?

• There are thousands of us. We are in every part of the country and many parts of the world.
• We have a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise.
• While nearly all bloggers work at something other than blogging for their 9-5, not all 9-5′s take place from 9-5, if you know what I mean.
• One thing that most bloggers have in common is that they like to write. That doesn’t make us all good writers, but it’s a start.
• If all goes according to plan (once there is more of a plan than what exists now) we will be able to cover a wide range of topics, stories, geographic areas, and more.

For now, this is pretty much a test post. More later.