METRO hopes to spread message via new blog
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports that METRO is about to enter the local blogosphere:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is hoping for heavy traffic — to its blog.
The agency plans to unveil a Web site before the end of the year to communicate directly with the public and has hired a full-time blogger, former Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Sit.
"Communication is something we're always striving to improve on," said Raequel Roberts, spokeswoman for Metro. "A free-ranging dialogue is important, and we're hoping that we can establish this through a blog site."
Roberts said Sit just started developing the blog, so it's unclear what features it will include.
If the blog includes robust commenting functionality and METRO's leadership actually reads/responds to it, then a METRO blog could be a very useful tool for METRO riders with complaints/concerns.
The bolded excerpt, however, implies that METRO views its blog as simply another PR outlet, and that somehow the current outlets (the current website, the local media) aren't sufficient to get METRO's message out. We'd suggest that METRO's bigger problem is that it isn't sufficiently responsive/accountable to the public and to its users, not that it can't get its "message" out to the public. Here's hoping the blog helps with the former. METRO doesn't really need another outlet to issue misleading press releases on Friday nights!
On a purely self-referential note, we were amused that Grant worked in a reference to the "Danger Train." It greatly amuses me that the term was actually coined by my good, pro-rail friend John Vaughn one night after we saw some music at the Continental Club (along the rail line).
UPDATE: Grant's story also mentions HPD has looked into a blog. Maybe Chief Hurtt could post photos and stories from Phoenix on the weekends! And when spring training starts in the Phoenix 'burbs, he could even post baseball updates from the Cactus League!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, On Message, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/27/06 08:00 AM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (19)
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