How to pitch USA Today’s bloggers

The newspaper’s online editor gives PR pros the skinny on popular blogs

USA Today’s blogs serve a triple purpose, says Chet Czarniak, the paper’s online managing editor.

“They’re for surveillance—connecting the readers to the story,” and ensuring online readers can dig deeper into news, Czarniak explains. Second, blogs are for “getting ahead of a story,” or breaking news in a way that’s not practical or fast enough for print or elsewhere online.

“It’s about the immediacy of the blogs,” explains the editor. “We can break news and also provide people a place to comment on the news.”

The third job of the blogs, says Czarniak, is to generate “reader engagement.” Says the editor, “You want readers to communicate among themselves, as well as with the blogger.”