And the beat goes on, or blogging a dead horse

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Beat Blogging trend in journalism. I’m not sure where it’s going, but, as I suspected, something’s got to give.

Beat blogging is the reportorial art of encouraging, inveigling and cajoling your local contacts to help you out via social networking. It’s a cool idea and one that journalists with a digital brain will one day figure out.

But, if you’re going to do the beat blogging shtick, what are you – as a savvy young reporter, with a job – going to ditch?