@Danny, I’ll look into the e-mail option. Do you use it for blogs, too? Or do you prefer RSS?

@Joel: Yay! Joel’s reading my blog! Thanks for the great comment. (All, take note: Joel is not a journalist, either, so this is a comment from a potential reader of yours.)

Re: “And even in some cases, it doesn’t matter to me that there was a 12-car accident that tied up traffic for hours YESTERDAY. I care about that -when I’m stuck in traffic- not after the fact.”

Well said.

And your news needs are similar to mine: “Local weather and traffic, -major- local news events, national news, world news.” I’d even go so far as to put it in that order, on an average day.

It’s very interesting, I think, that weather and traffic now top my needs. Inside journalism, I thought of that as “extra stuff.” You know, the things we add to the homefront because we “have to.” On the outside, I find these services much more essential. Journalists shouldn’t underestimate their value.

BTW, you can set up an automated daily blog e-mail delivery easily via Feedburner. That’s how I do it on Journalistopia.

>> Make it local. Of all the news I get, the information I usually want most is what I’m not getting: local content. And what I really, really want is micro-local content.

This is a good idea as long as you get the opportunity to decide what content you want and exclude what you don’t want. Granted, I live in a city with better news coverage than other cities, but I could care less that some school board is meeting to decide whether to allow kids to wear flip-flops to school or whether they are banning PDA’s (and I’m not taking about Blackberries).

And even in some cases, it doesn’t matter to me that there was a 12-car accident that tied up traffic for hours YESTERDAY. I care about that -when I’m stuck in traffic- not after the fact.

Maybe I get the bigger picture of the news by listening to NPR and Marketplace on PRI both of which I find more relevant to my daily news needs. I feel like things that happen out there in the world are far more important than some of the trivial details of what’s happening in my city.

And don’t even get me started on the miserable “coming up in 15 minutes on the Morning Show!” drivel that I see -every- morning on my local news channel while I eat breakfast. I could care less what’s going to be on TV in 15 minutes. I’m going to work like the rest of this city! :)

Local weather and traffic, -major- local news events, national news, world news. Not necessarily in that order, but that’s my news needs.