Not too long ago, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Assistant Managing Editor Michelle Nicolosi appealed to readers to submit their ideas for PI-hosted blogs.

We’re looking for Seattle-area residents who are passionate about something and want to tell the world about that topic, be it long distance running, the local live music scene, gaming, cooking, movies, poker, programming, getting fit, buying real estate, parenting - or something else. We especially want to sign up neighborhood bloggers to write about the issues and events in your corner of the world.

Nicolosi also noted that, by blogging via the P-I, bloggers with few readers would instantly be exposed to a much larger audience.

The first of the blogs to emerge from the PI initiative are now active. According to Brian Chin, the P-I’s senior online producer, “We don’t tell them what to write and we don’t edit what they post.” The themes, though, are as focused as a beat reporter’s:

• Bus Chick, Transit Authority—A blog by a Seattleite who is part of the growing population of locals who have given up cars.
• Ear Candy—A focus on music
• A radical centrist on globalism & trade—Exploring “the challenges of globalization and trade in search of real solutions.”

These three bloggers join the P-I’s “Blog Squad,” nine-plus P-I reporters with blogs and two with podcasts, sharing the same blog format but clearly distinguished as “Blogs by Readers.”

This integration of citizen journalism into the space occupied by paid editorial staff is a good idea, and I like the P-I’s exercise of control over who will be invited to participate followed by a hands-off editorial policy.  Now to see if readers tap into it.