On Tuesday, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) announced that bloggers and others who publish content on the web are now eligible for press passes as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by three Web Journalists who sued because they were denied passes. In New York, journalists with press passes are usually allowed to cross police barricades at public events.
With the new proposed policy in place, the NYPD would be able to issue press passes valid for up to two years to any journalist who has personally attended and reported on at least six qualified events within the city in the preceding two years, regardless of whether the reports were published online, in print newspapers, magazines, books or other media. Qualified events will include city-sponsored activities – like a press conference or parade – as well as emergencies where the city has set up do-not-cross lines. The proposal also allows inexperienced journalists to obtain single-use press passes.
Officials issuing the passes will now be paying closer attention to a journalist’s publishing experience, rather than the mode of which content is published. So whether journalists are publishing their content or news stories via blogs, newspaper or other types of media, it should not matter. Its the journalist’s experience and type of work done that counts and determines how the passes are issued and not the organization they write for. However, they certainly can’t give these credentials to anyone with a computer.
That is really cool for bloggers in the area! So I wonder how they judge experience… is it post count, subscriber count, traffic? It’s a bit of a gray area don’t you think?
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That’s great for bloggers in the area. This will take blogging a step further in terms of an actually recognized profession, even though I already consider it as part of my profession. However, I don’t think the general public views it in that light.
Judging a bloggers experience would definitely be a gray area, but I’m sure they will figure something out. Maybe there will be some type of government agency where bloggers will register. I know the government may want to monitor the industry.
Thanks for reading Tom.