Or: “If you can’t take the heat, don’t tickle the dragon”

This session is designed for bloggers who are willing, even maniacally eager, to hold a corporate entity accountable for malfeasance, ignorance and other nonsense/meanness. The facilitator worked in daily journalism for 37 years; her last employer at the Indianapolis Star was the Gannett Corporation, which purchased the Pulliam papers in 2000. Holladay worked for Gannett for six years as a metro/state columnist, retiring in 2006 at age 59 1/2. Since July of 2006, her blog ruthholladay.com has devoted at least a portion of time and energy to scrutinizing corporate newspaper ownership and the direction of newspapers under the leadership of bottom-line watchers in far-off headquarters. Blogging about your former employer is not for the faint-of-heart. This session will examine how blogs can and do hold newspapers (or other corporations) accountable; how blogs enhance news coverage; why blogging is liberating for former daily grinders; and screwing up.