Newspaper Policy Persuades Editor to Abandon Personal Blog

Doug Harper, a News Desk Editor at the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, last week wrote that he is ending his personal weblog because of new blogging guidelines that came down from the newspaper's management.

According to Harper, the Journal sent around a memo to employees that among other things says:

It is especially important that editorial staffers do not express personal opinions - on their Web sites or in their blogs or chat rooms - on news subjects or issues that they cover. Such publication of personal opinion casts doubt on their impartiality, ultimately calling into question the newspaper's commitment to fairness.

Harper responds:

Well, that's the end of the line for me. Since I often sit at the wire desk and make decisions about which national and international news stories get published in the next day's edition of the ------ ------, the line about "may not contain content dealing in any way with the subject areas that the employees cover or reasonably might be expected to cover" precludes me from writing about current events in any form.

It's been nice knowing you all.

As blogging becomes more popular I bet we'll see more edicts like these in newsrooms across the country.