Respect for blogging

"Begin as a tiny operation. Manage to gain a following. As the audience grows, ask readers for donations and accept advertising. As the advertising and donations grow, add reporters and features. Repeat as often as needed."

So goes the advice of Joshua Micah Mitchell, who runs the Web site Talking Points Memo and won a Polk award for his investigation of the firing of Justice Department prosecutors.

Mitchell said that his site uses the blogging format instead of "discrete articles," which lets it flow. The site started to turn a profit in 2003, when users became interested in weapons of mass destruction.

Talking Points Memo, though it uses opinion, also gathers information and presents it using journalistic principles. Mitchell's work may represent an acceptable compromise to advocates for user-generated new media and to those who favor traditional formats.