A couple of months ago I signed up as a local blogger to the Newcastle Journal’s Your Place regional blogging project. It’s created a network of 22-local micro sites each of which are fed with content by local bloggers.

Clay Shirky, Seth Godin, and others have spotlighted this approach as a means of breathing life into regional media. But I’ve very quickly identified a flaw in the model of using bloggers to contribute to local media properties.

In local communities bloggers can’t be outspoken and risk causing offence. I’m sitting on at least two cracking stories that as a journalist I wouldn’t hesitate to run, but as a blogger living in the community I’m staying well clear of through fear of pissing off my neighbours.

What’s the answer?