The Solomon Scandals A Washington newspaper novel by David Rothman

Smile! You’re on TBD TV—at least if you’re an affiliated blogger with Skype and the news gods beckon

A lit­tle birdie with tiny rab­bit ears grow­ing out of its head—an older cousin of the Twit­ter mascot—tells me that the new TBD blog net­work is encour­ag­ing mem­bers to get Skype video going.

Then the blog­gers can appear on TBD cable TV, not just online, at the request of the news gods.

No, the Skype won’t be manda­tory, but since video cams sell for less than $50 and many lap­tops come with ‘em, I sus­pect that a num­ber of TBD net­work blog­gers will oblige. TBD may also bring blog­gers into the studio.

So much for the stereo­type of blog­gers just typ­ing away in their under­wear. Of course a blog­ger could put on just a nice shirt at home and trust the cam­era angle, open­ing up all kinds of comic pos­si­bil­i­ties if the vid­cam slips and points too far South dur­ing a live broadcast.

In a related move, “TBD” will be the new name for “NewsChan­nel 8” as the new oper­a­tion melds with the exist­ing cable one. That makes sense, espe­cially if you con­sider the rise of net.TV and all the related link­ing and on-demand pos­si­bil­i­ties. I’ll also be curi­ous to see if the Skype ini­tia­tive encour­ages local blog­gers to be more video-oriented on their own sites.

Still unclear is another matter—the extent to which TBD’s blog­gers will be gen­uinely neigh­bor­hood– and community-oriented, as opposed to just sports– or hobby-oriented. TBD remains a work in progress, with both blog­gers and staff peo­ple involved; and I’ll hope that it can suc­ceed at this, just as I am root­ing for the Post to come up with a good for­mula for hyper­local coverage.

I won­der, by the way, what the Post will do with video. Aim for a D.C.-area cable chan­nel? Or forge an alliance with, say, an exist­ing cable broad­caster? If TBD can get the neigh­bor­hood angles right, the cable broad­casts could seem awe­somely omniscient.

Mean­while stay tuned in the next few days for a post directed at both the Post and TBD—with ideas to help them grow closer to their read­ers. And if the Exam­iner wants to bor­row a few con­cepts, fine.

Details: I’ve invited TBD’s Steve Buttry—not the rabbit-eared one—to add details. Via a quick Tweet, he con­firms the above and says staffers will also have video equip­ment. TBD hopes to launch later this sum­mer. Skype screen­shot is from the Inter­net phone company’s site but doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily show the lat­est interface.

You might also like:

• How TBD Web news startup in the D.C. area will work with affiliate bloggers
• Washington Post vs. Allbritton’s TBD Web startup plans: BOTH sides could do better
• Georgetown Dish joins TBD blog network: Deju vu angles—in Washington Post’s backyard
• TBD’s Washington area news startup: Niche blogs wooed—but no signs YET of a hyperlocal nirvana
• TBD’s hyperlocal judo is smart and ethical: How should rivals at the Washington Post and elsewhere respond to all the linking ahead?