Gannett experiments with reporter in New Jersey coffee shop

The Gannett Blog reports that the country’s largest newspaper chain is collaborating on a community blog with six of its newspapers in New Jersey. As part of this effort, called Freehold InJersey, they plan to put a journalist in a local coffee shop:

“The new venture’s twist: Freehold InJersey has established a tiny satellite bureau in a coffee shop, Zebu Forno, on Main Street in Freehold Borough.

“At a computer workstation surrounded by diners and patrons,’’ editors say in a post, “the staff of Freehold InJersey will conduct interviews, work on stories, and produce multimedia content for this groundbreaking website. Passers-by can stop to ask the latest news, share a tip, or learn how to post their own stories to the open-source news site.”

The site is published with off-the-shelf Buddy Press software.”

The “news cafe” concept and the notion of putting a reporter in a public space is not new, but also hasn’t been tried much. So we’ll see how it unfolds, and what lessons can be learned. But I like to emphasize that it’s important for news organizations continue to find different ways to engage the community, so in that vein, it’s a positive step.

I’m also intrigued that they’re using BuddyPress. That’s what I’m using for this new site, and it’s been quite a learning curve. But more on that in another post.

What are you thoughts? Any other news organizations that have put reporters in the local coffee shop?