First, because it may be an easy way of injecting fresh content — in particular if it’s a unique tidbit that nobody is aware of; second, because when done well, you can demonstrate your own thought leadership in a given category; and third, it provides the opportunity to get the inside scoop — the first blog to recognize a specific bit of news, and the potential for being explosively linked to (i.e. “link bait”), bringing traffic, comments, all of those valuable inbound links, and the recognition that your site has done well.

Now, It’s Genuinely Adequate Not to Break the News

Unless bloggers have deep connections within any specific industry, most bloggers are not in the position to report on breaking news in any fashion. That is ok. Nearly all A-list bloggers do this. Blogging magazines do this. And quite frankly, mainstream news agencies do this. In reality, most “news” is actually repeated ad nauseam between different networks and across various media. Most bloggers will therefore need to comment on existing news that other mainstream organizations or bloggers have discovered or created first.

The trick, therefore, is to actually discover news that’s worth commenting on.

Become a News Junkie

On your quest to discover something that’s newsworthy and suitable for your blog, you’ll likely be looking through a lot of news. And as you get into the swing of things, the number of sources you’re going to pick up will increase. To maybe hundreds of sources a day. Some will be bloggers, some will be mainstream news sources, and others in some pretty strange areas, indeed.

But if you’re serious about blogging about stuff that happens that is relevant to your blog, generally you will find yourself attracted to finding more and more things to read. This is good, because you’ll start getting a feel for who the main players in any given industry are; what their positions are for popular issues; and over time, you’ll start developing a sense of context and history of events that play out.

All of these things will help you write intelligently once you actually discover news.

Feeds, Feeds, Feeds — Know Them, Love Them, Embrace Them

If you blog, you already know about RSS feeds. You almost certainly publish your own feeds so that people can pick them up and read them easily in their own newsreader. For the uninitiated, RSS feeds are a way of publishing information — almost any information, and this isn’t limited to blogs. The data is in a simpler form so that different news reading applications can read them.

Feeds are absolutely the key to digesting all that information quickly and efficiently, because on the reader side of things they provide an easy way of aggregating information from a huge number of websites — and allow you to scan a wide range of sites from a single vantage point in a very streamlined way.

Get a Good Feed Reader

Now that you know what feeds are, you’ll want to get a good feed reader. Most, if not all, are now free, so it’s just a matter of deciding whether or not you want a software-based feed reader or a web-based feed reader. It’s like the debate between desktop email clients and webmail services.

There are many popular feed readers, but Google has a particularly useful one that lets you view some of your own reading stats (which is nifty), and share your feeds very easily. Personally, I tend to prefer a web-based feed reader, as they let you read feeds wherever there is an internet connection.

Furthermore, I have a particular fondness for services such as Netvibes or Pageflakes. These feed readers are particularly useful as you can add feeds in little boxes that display like a web “desktop” that fills your browser; you can view the headlines of many, many feeds at once — a very efficient method for visually inclined readers.

Start Subscribing and Sharing Your Feeds

Now that you understand what feeds are and have a feed reader, you need to start collecting feeds to begin reading. Newspapers, blogs, magazines, or journals — start checking them all out in your browser to see if they publish RSS feeds, and secondly what their feed URLs are so you can add them to your feed reader.

You might ask — isn’t there a faster way to do this? There is. A format called OPML was developed to back up or share your feed list all at once. All feed readers can ‘export’ your feed list in OPML format, which you can then share or import.

If you have friends with similar interests, you can exchange OPML files. There are even some public repositories of OPML lists, and services like Share.opml.org allow you to see what others subscribe to, helping you discover more feeds that suit your interests.

Go Beyond Subscribing

Google Alerts / Technorati / BlogPulse / TailRank

So, you’ve got your feeds to scan daily for news. But what about discovering information from unknown sources? Several services will monitor the web for specific keywords or tags and return relevant results.

For example, Google Alerts allows you to set keyword triggers, and sends you daily or weekly results via email. These results come from both mainstream and blog sources.

Other tools that monitor blogs include Technorati, TailRank, BlogPulse, and Google Blog Search. They allow you to search and then subscribe to feeds of those results, helping you continuously monitor the blogosphere for the topics you care about.

Discover the Hidden, Unique and Cool with Social Bookmarks

Digg / Reddit / Netscape / Del.icio.us / Furl

If you’re looking for off-the-beaten-path news, social bookmarking sites are incredibly useful. These platforms let users share and tag interesting content they discover online.

Sites like Digg, Reddit, and Del.icio.us allow you to search by keyword and then subscribe to those results using RSS feeds. This lets you follow a steady stream of fresh, interesting content that people are actively sharing.

Each platform has its own flavor. Digg is strong on tech and gaming. Reddit is more political and community-driven. Tailoring your use of these sites based on your audience can give you access to stories that mainstream feeds might miss.

Stay on Top of Big Issues with News Aggregators

Google News / Techmeme / Megite / Newsvine / Topix

If you want a bird’s-eye view of news in your category, news aggregators are a powerful tool. Sites like Google News, Techmeme, and Topix combine algorithms and human curation to display trending stories.

These platforms constantly update and surface the most popular or most talked about news. They also list the sources, which helps you identify the major players and thought leaders in your niche.

As a blogger, this means not just keeping up with major developments — but also discovering who’s shaping the conversation. That helps you know who to quote, link to, comment on, and follow in your own blogging.

Final Thoughts

This is just how I personally use available tools to scan, read, digest, and ultimately find news to comment on and blog about.

What do you find useful?
If you have anything to add or comment, let me know and let’s get the conversation going!

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