In my first visit to Seattle as the president of "Seattle-based Fisher Communications-owned Pegasus News," I had the privilege of attending a blogger meet-up hosted by Chris Pirillo and sponsored by The Company's ABC-affiliate TV station KOMO.

There were easily 150+ local bloggers in attendance, which surprised me. Seattle is a much bloggier town than the DF-Dub.

In a case of it being a smallish world, I spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the ups and downs of Dallas Observer Music Awards with Sam Machkovech, who's living in Seattle and freelancing for, among others, their alt-alt-weekly, The Stranger.

I was little surprised by the conspiracy-in-the-eyes reaction I got from some folks when I was introduced to them in my "official" capacity. Despite what other folks in the mainstream media might surmise, I hope that locals know that we look at the local blogosphere as partners, not competitors to be crushed or co-opted.

I met a lot of cool people, but would have to give a special hat tip to David Brewster, who was the founder of The Seattle Weekly; is now the founder of local online daily Crosscut; and is definitely a kindred spirit. At his excellent suggestion, I'm going to see about forming a loose association of independent (in spirit) local online news businesses. Proposed motto: "No dues; no awards."