"The problem," says Westword writer Michael Roberts, "is squeezing it all in."

Roberts is referring to the time constraints on his ability to write a media column for Westword's print edition as well as being the "uberblogger" for Westword's news blog, called The Latest Word.

In June, Roberts was assigned to produce the blog, ensuring it's updated daily with 10 posts (six by him and, in theory, four by other Westword staff).

The blog covers a mix of topics like Marilyn Musgrave's missing concession speech, the Denver Film Festival and "Schmuck of the Week."

Roberts' new job was created after a Dallas Observer blog, overseen by a staff writer, started attracting lots of online visitors. It's been so successful that 15 alternative weeklies in the Village Voice chain, including Westword, will dedicate a writer to manage similar local blogs, according to Westword Editor Patricia Calhoun.

The initial experience suggests that the more newslike items are posted on Westword's blog, the more people will visit its Web site, which translates into advertising revenue.

In fact, since Roberts started in June, page views of The Latest Word have increased from 40,000 per month to 200,000, Calhoun told me.

Roberts is enjoying the online experiment, he misses writing longer articles, and he's "happy when the lights go on in the office," meaning he's glad he's employed at a time news outlets are closing.

But I'm worried that because of Roberts' new job, fewer people will see his media analyses - given that the readership of Westword's print edition is four times the page views of the blog.

Roberts is Denver's premier media critic, dissecting the local news industry and standing up for journalistic standards.

For example, his last column ("Channels 2 and 31 mix it up in Denver," Oct. 22) beautifully illuminated the human side of the merger of two local TV stations - while explaining the news business issues at play.

So far, his blog assignment hasn't meant the death of his print media column, which ran weekly for nine years, but it now appears about once a month - less frequently than he'd hoped when he started blogging.

That's a loss, at a time when we need more writers educating people about journalism, not fewer.

"My job is not to educate the public about the purpose of journalism," Calhoun told me. "It's to do journalism."

If Roberts has a good story for a media column, Calhoun will make space for it in print and free up time for him to do it. She also argues that a media critic can be more effective online, where stories can be linked.

And Roberts blogs way more about the media than any other topic - even if his posts lack the research and sensitivity of his print column.

Still, I think Calhoun should formally give Roberts time to write two print columns per month, and the best of his online media posts should run in the print edition weekly.

Front-page losers. My 11-year-old son loves to read the sports section if his team wins. But if Denver loses, he won't even touch the newspaper, not even if there's a fiction story in there.

Rocky Mountain News journalists seem to have similar feelings about the Denver Broncos. If the Broncos win, they get a photo across the front page. If the Broncos lose, no big photo. With few exceptions, this has been the pattern over the past two years.

At first I thought this was horrible and inexcusable sports-team boosterism that had no place in journalism. I still think so.

But on the bright side, given that the Broncos are big "news" in Denver, I think the Rocky has hit on a smart way to handle Broncos coverage on the front page.

But I did find at least two cases over the past two years when the Broncos lost and a game photo was nonetheless splashed across the front page.

This might be driving people like my son away from the newspaper. If the Rocky must consider the Broncos front-page news, be consistent and keep the Broncos off the front page when they lose during the regular season. No exceptions.

Dr. Rosen? Rocky columnist Mike Rosen presented himself Nov. 14 as a scientific expert on the instinctive behavior of a specific subgroup of Homo sapiens.

Without citing any laboratory studies, Rosen wrote that reporters at the Denver dailies possess "populist, liberal instincts" that cannot be restrained fully.

Rosen thinks Rocky editor and publisher John Temple does a better job taming these destructive instincts than Denver Post editor Greg Moore.

I asked Rosen for specifics on how Temple manages to do this better than Moore. He's spoken with both editors, and he believes Temple is "more sensitive" to bias.

"I don't have a database on this," he said. "It's an impression."

Rosen should get real evidence before offering further half-baked conclusions on the topic.

Jason Salzman, president of Effect Communications, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.

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