Friendships leaped from computer screens to real life Thursday when dozens of people who followed the Kwame Kilpatrick trial blog of Free Press reporter Jim Schaefer finally met face-to-face.
"It's amazing. I've been talking to these people for six months and have this camaraderie with them," Dana Swanson, 48, of Howell said in the packed back room of the Anchor Bar in Detroit.
The Free Press hosted the gathering for devotees of the blog, which took news coverage of a major event in Detroit to a new level.
Schaefer, who covered the former Detroit mayor's public corruption trial with reporter Tresa Baldas, offered daily, gavel-to-gavel trial coverage through a live blog -- that included reader interaction, which no other trial blog offered. The blog received from 4,000 to more than 17,000 unique visitors a day. On Monday, verdict day, the number jumped to 73,000.
On his Facebook page Friday morning, Schaefer says: "Had a great time putting real faces to virtual handles. . . . Met dozens of people and raised more than a grand for Eagle Sports Childrens Charities. . . . By my estimate, that blog brought in way more than half-a-million readers to freep.com. Who says newspapers are dead?"
Previous coverage
Is the Free Press Changing The Future of Local News Coverage?, Nov. 2
