Good journalism requires enthusiasm, a zeal for getting the facts and relating them clearly and simply. There are few journalists as enthusiastic as Joe Killian, and his love for his job is apparent in every post he writes for his blog, Automatic Writing.

Killian [pictured at right] started Automatic Writing in September 2005, first as an outlet to cover some of his favorite topics that he couldn’t discuss in his work for newspapers like the Greensboro News & Record and the Carolinian. But in the following months, Automatic Writing has become something more fascinating: a source of insight into the ins and outs of reporting, and a must-read for young journalists.

“Getting paid to write has always felt like something of a racket to me,” Killian said. “It’s as though someone gave you a sports car and said, ‘Here’s the deal. We’re going to pay you to go really, really fast.’”

For all his worries, Killian has been getting paid to write since he was 15, when he got his first byline in his hometown paper in Connecticut. He worked for The Tattoo, a paper written entirely by teens, and won local and state press awards while still in high school. He attended college at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he wrote for the weekly student paper, The Carolinian. Now, at 24, Killian reports for the Greensboro News & Record and posts almost every day to Automatic Writing.

The best entries to Automatic Writing are the ones that give Killian’s personal take on the stories he writes for the News & Record as well as a glimpse of the news-gathering process. They are more or less direct soft-news companions to his hard-news pieces that run in the News & Record, and the contrasts can be illuminating.

In his post, “Waiting for Sidney,” Killian wrote about the recent case of a college basketball coach’s son who was arrested for attempted murder. In the post, Killian wrote about the gaggle of reporters waiting for hours to catch just a glimpse of the young man, “hunched in the doorway to capture this strange and horrible family moment for the next day’s paper, the morning newscast …” It’s not often that reporters talk about the realities of reporting, and when they do, it’s usually through the filter of another reporter. Killian offers the rare chance to see a newspaper man’s life firsthand.

Automatic Writing’s focus and tone has evolved since its inception, and it reflects another evolution; that of it’s creator from a fresh-faced, excited young reporter to one who is frequently on the defensive from detractors like his fellow Greensboro blogger David Hoggard of Hogg’s Blog.

“Every time you complete a task — and often before you’ve even begun — three or four people with no training in your field, who have little or no familiarity with the specifics of your work…pop up to offer you criticisms,” he wrote in “Comments on comments.”

One of the earliest examples of this shift is Killian’s post from July 7, 2006, titled, “Will everyone who doesn’t think I’m part of a conspiracy against them please raise their hand?” In it, he complains about local leaders of the black community calling him a tool of the “white media.” But in a post just a few days earlier, called “Shutting my mouth,” Killian admitted that even in his blog he can’t say everything he wants to say for fear of alienating future sources. It’s an odd balancing act to watch, and one that calls into question the role of blogs in the emerging media environment.

Fortunately, Killian also uses his blog to muse on that subject. In “Get on the bus,” Killian admits that his paper is a little behind on figuring out how to balance its blogs and its print version, that better and more innovative online content is the only way to draw in new readers. “There’s nothing more frustrating for young reporters than having good ideas squelched or compromised in an attempt to pacify people who refuse to catch up to where the culture is now,” Killian says.

Killian may not know the best way to attract new readers to the News & Record, but incorporating blogs like Automatic Writing would be a pretty good bet. Killian blends reporting and commentary with an open approach that gives the impression of transparent journalism, and he does it all with an infectious enthusiasm.

In Killian’s own words: “This is what it’s like to love your job.”