The News & Star - a “daily evening, and local, and paid-for, and tabloid” newspaper in Carlisle - has a blogging section.

And while it’s not particularly visually appealing, it does the job of creating a regular (or irregular), less formal flow of news, information and views from the paper’s staff to their readers.

What’s more, non-contributors such as Carlisle resident David also have blogs hosted on the News & Star website. What better way for a newspaper to connect with its community?

Elsewhere, BlogsToday.co.uk is owned by Johnston Press and attempts to do a similar sort of thing but on a grander scale.

Its major limitation, however, is that bloggers must specify their location, with the only areas available being those that Johnston media covers.

So I can sign up if I live in Kings Lynn (population 31,105), but not if I’m in Manchester (population 372,459). Go figure.
Lancashire Evening Post staff have clearly been encouraged to blog there, but again so too have locals not employed by the paper.

Things are slowly looking up for blogging and the media.