The folks over at Gangrey are brainstorming ideas for new beats, assuming that all of the traditional beats were thrown over a cliff.

What strikes me about the ideas is how narrowly focused they are, but not by geography. And culling a narrowly focused topic that isn’t limited by geography is my No. 1 requirement for what makes a good blog idea.

Imagine a blog focused entirely on finding stories about:

“Desperation. Or, the things people do when they are forced to do something (abandon morals, embrace new ones, kill others, kill themselves, learn things, beg, win, lose, ignore the problem, take risks, become the Wiggles).” - rlake

“Firsts and lasts -- first date, first kiss, first drink, first underage party, first baby, first house . . . first communion, first tooth, first lost tooth. last time you spoke with your grandma before she died, last day at a job, last day with a car before selling it, last day of school, last football game, last day in jail, last day in office.” - Janine

“Night security guards and the stories they could tell.” – Raja

Great ideas for journalism get past the esoteric stories of institutions and issues and go directly to the people. All of these ideas start with the real people and feelings we can relate to as human beings, and then bump into issues.

Any of these would be an intriguing local newspaper beat. But I like their potential as national topics for blogs. With enough of these blogs aggregated into a standalone site, it would become a daily must-read.