Journalism consultant Paul Conley describes three groups of journalists based on their awareness on blogging. The first group, which he describes as the “bright and ambitious,” has a good understanding of web logs and ‘at least a passing understanding of the fundamental shifts in media.’

The second group, Conley writes, ‘consists of people who don’t understand a thing about conversational editorial, but think that they do.’ He says these people demonstrate ‘shockingly low levels of curiosity.’ Conley says that if a publishers convinces someone from this group to blog, ‘all you’ll get is a poorly written column that appears in reverse chronological order.’ The blog, he says, ‘won’t be conversational.’

Journalists in the third group, Conley says, are ‘completely unaware of what has happened in the past few years.’ The number of journalists in this group is growing smaller every day, says Conley:

“They don’t know what a blog is. They are still upset that the company started a Web site…They are print reporters, and they never miss an opportunity to tell you that. They are often quite delusional about their writing ability and their influence in the industries they cover.”

Amy Gahran adds another group in her post at Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits, group 1.5: ‘Reporters who are vaguely curious about weblogs, but time/technology constraints, lack of guidance/training, or general technophobia prevent them from getting to know and use this medium.’