The man who advises that newspapers charge readers to access content online, San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarus, now says blogs aren’t as valuable as newspaper content because they lack original reporting. My suggestion for David is that he stick to subjects he knows something about before someone actually listens.

Two more reasons David doesn’t know what he’s talking about:

1) David Lazarus sorely misses the point by insisting that the act of dialing a phone and talking to someone inherently makes his column more valuable than our blogs. The people who he dismisses as lazy bloggers are actually experts in the industry. Jeff Jarvis has a blog and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets about the future of journalism. If David calls Jeff on the phone, does that make it reporting? Yes, but it doesn’t make what David writes more valuable than what Jeff writes.

Furthermore, if I read Jeff’s blog every day for a year, and David calls him on the phone once, which of us knows more about Jeff’s opinions when we write? I do.

What David writes isn’t more informed than what Jeff or I write; it’s less informed. Even if David calls a bunch of experts, years of experience working online and reading blogs from others in the field trumps a couple phone calls anytime.

2) David Lazarus doesn't understand economics. That's the point of my earlier blog entry. Newspapers can't simply agree to charge for their content because that will trigger a non-newspaper competitor to form and provide the same service for free. In Lazarus' mind, it’s still only newspapers providing local news. Not so in the modern real world.

David doesn’t believe me. He doesn’t believe any of us in the journalism industry who disagreed with him on our blogs. But who do you believe?

A) The guy who called a couple experts on the phone to ask their opinion and has never worked a day in online journalism.

B) The cadre of online journalists who research and read opinions from experts just about every day.

David’s right about one thing. When reading opinions, it’s important to consider the credibility of the source.