On IdeaLab: One reporter-turned-blogger explores local news after newspapers

Over at the PBS IdeaLab blog, I interviewed Michele Ellson, editor and publisher at The Island, a local news site devoted to covering the city of Alameda, which sits to the west of Oakland in San Francisco Bay.

Michele left newspapers in 2007 and launched The Island in early 2008, using Google's free Blogspot hosting and more recently switched over to a custom WordPress install.

In the interview, she talks about her typical day working as the entire news staff of an online-only community news publication:

"2. Take us through a snapshot of a typical day at The Island. Are you out on the beat reporting? Working the phones? Managing content and comments? All of the above - while taking care of two kids.
Today's schedule included stops at two local cafes for a piece I'm running on local coffeehouses, a tour of our former military base for a project on redevelopment plans there, pictures of environmental cleanup taking place there, a stop at a local boat business to check out a tip.

Right now I'm catching up on e-mail, reading comments, updating my main story for the day and checking the local papers and blogs for news. Tonight I'll probably sit down for three or four hours, something I do five nights a week, to write tomorrow's stories."

Read the whole thing, and let IdeaLab readers know about your own experience if you're already a paper-free reporter. If you have any questions for Michele, feel free to post them there as well -- she'll be checking that thread.