Roland Tanglao wants to know why Vancouver’s best-known media aren’t offering newsfeeds and blogs. What’s more, he’s offering them a pretty valuable freebie:

If RSS, blogs and mashups are good enough for the Washington Post and the New York Times, they ought to be good enough for you. Email me roland AT urbanvancouver.com or call me at 604 729 7924 if you want some free advice on Web 2.0, RSS. etc. I can be bribed with coffee or lunch :-) and I can point you to people that can help you design and implement a 21st century online strategy including blogs, RSS, podcasting, videoblogging, etc. instead of your current 1999 online strategy.

The late, lamented Terminal City was all over RSS; The Tyee puts the Straight, Sun, Province and Courier to shame. (As Mark Hamilton notes, the Sun’s latest facelift, while welcome, is still well short of what today’s readers ought to be able to expect: “by walling up the content, limiting the archives and saying no to RSS, they’re playing against the strengths of the ‘net by attempting to become a pay-for-use portal.”)

Then again, CanWest is notorious for treating information with Gollum-like covetousness. They’re the ones demanding that freelance contributors give them exclusive rights over their content “in any and all media, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity.”

They should take Roland up on his offer, and fast. Today’s wired readers aren’t noted for their willingness to be kept waiting — in perpetuity, or otherwise.