The Murphy Scoop

There, at the end of the Projo's piece on House Speaker William J. Murphy's decision to step down from his post after 2010 and endorse Majority leader Gordon Fox as his successor, is this note:

Murphy commented after a report about his Capriccio dinner announcement surfaced on the RIFuture.org blog.

It was a small acknowledgment of a new reality.

New media enthusiasts have overhyped the blogosphere for years. But here in Rhode Island - a state with a single, diminished newspaper and a healthy appetite for politics - bloggers are actually breaking news with some regularity. Beating traditional media to the punch.

It is fascinating to watch. And in some ways, quite encouraging. Competition is healthy. But it's also a little troubling. The ProJo is still the largest and most important news-gathering organization in the state. And as other outlets chip away at its foundations, amid tough times for newspapers, it only adds to the broadsheet's vulnerability.