Having a blog editor even two years ago would have almost been unthinkable in the staid world of newspaper journalism.

But some MSM orgs are getting with the program and experimenting with how they can utlilize blogs and other new technologies to enhance the old media experience.

An excerpt from the Online Journalism Review story:

There's something inherently like the "Odd Couple" about the pairing of citizen media with a traditional newsroom. If citizen media is about being all-inclusive, with news as a conversation, old-line media has been about news coming from the mouths and pens of journalists, with the readers left to fend for themselves in the "Letters to the Editor."

But when those old-line news organizations go online, they must compete with local bloggers, Craigslist, Slashdot and any online source that lets readers do the talking. So it's not surprising that the more industrious news sites have started to ask their readers to take on citizen media projects, submit photos, start a blog or give live online feedback that runs beneath each staff-written story.

But who do you put on the front line? Who can oversee these efforts with a light but discerning touch, allowing free speech without inviting lawsuits? That's the role of the new citizen media editor, a role that's only now coming into focus at various sites such as MSNBC.com, VenturaCountyStar.com, NorthwestVoice.com and News-Record.com.

Part chat moderator, part copy editor and part ombudsman, the citizen media editor is such a new role that no one really has that title, yet. Alicia Hoffman at VenturaCountyStar.com is multimedia editor. Lex Alexander at News-Record.com is a staff writer at the News & Record newspaper and citizen-journalism coordinator at the Web site (as well as a blogger for the site).