A Bold Venture:

Creating an 'Electronic Town Square' with Blogs
Ellen Simon AP Technology Writer

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) --

It's a journalist's job to ask questions, but they're usually aimed at outsiders.

At the News & Record, a 93,000-daily circulation newspaper in Greensboro, reporters and editors are asking tough questions about the paper itself.

The biggest questions: If the paper needs to change to survive, what changes should be made? What can it do, especially online, to make itself the electronic equivalent of a town square?

Seeking the answers, the paper has launched an audacious online experiment.

The News & Record's Web site features 11 staff-written Web journals, or blogs, including one by the editor that answers readers' questions, addresses their criticisms and discusses how the paper is run.

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