Sources Publish Full Text of Media Interviews on Own Weblogs

In Every Last Word, American Journalism Review reports on interview sources who use their own weblogs to publish the full text of interviews they do with reporters.
Says one interviewee:

"It seemed natural for me to publish 'the rest of the story' online for readers who might be interested."

The article goes on:

More and more, the exchanges that precede news stories are making it onto the Web. This is different from a news organization publishing an article in Q&A style, or offering a broadcast transcript online. It's a decision, usually by the reporter or the source, to share parts of conversations that didn't make the cut.

Sheila Lennon, the interviewee mentioned above, offers another thought:

"Not every traditional reporter will feel this way, but I don't think supplying a transcript undercuts the writer at all," Lennon says. "The reporter creates the backbone of the report, mulching all the facts into a story people will want to read. Then you throw up links to the rest of the photos, the interviews, the principals' Web sites--primary sources, for those interested in a fuller report.
. . . "Traditional reporters who think of the Web as just another way to publish the same story they'd write for print are the ones most likely to be rattled by the source putting up the conversation," says Lennon. "Online journalists are more likely to understand the freewheeling nature of the Web--the synergy that comes when their story stands on its own and the source's transcript sends more people to the reporter's story. . . ."

I agree. I tend to look at reporters and editors as filters. They take the information available and turn it into a coherent entry point for the topic at hand. Not even a magazine-length article can cover the waters, as it were. The full texts of interviews, whether posted by the reporter or the source, are an important part of "the whole story."
The American Journalism Review writer keeps her article intellectually honest by posting her interview with Lennon. It contains some great thoughts that didn't make it into the story, space limitations being what they are:

I'm so used to working this way on the Web that when I read a roundup story in the paper these days -- 3 new CDs, 3 people running for state rep, 4 bloggers -- it often seems to me to need links. This was the promise of hypertext: The net offers an unlimited news hole, with audio and video and everybody else's offerings to boot.
The Web is a terrific editor's medium. Web-savvy copy editors -- curious, widely informed on a lot of topics, interested in "the whole package" -- are natural bloggers and could, when we're all finally wired, shift quickly from making news pages to hunting down the best related links.

Random thought: Does this concept extend to in-person interviews, instead of just e-mail interviews where the transcript already exists? With the source wanting to record the interview (presumably on microcassette recorders) do reporters start carrying extra AA batteries to ensure the interview happens? Kind of a role-reversal from the one embarrassing time when, in my reporting days, my pen died and I had to borrow a writing utensil from the city clerk. I've carried two pens ever since.