Not every post a beat reporter makes needs to be just about news or facts.

Some posts simply serve to be conversation starters — to engage the community. After all, one of the major differences between beat reporting on the Web, instead of in print, is the community that forms online. A good beat reporter harnesses that community and actively engages readers.

Eric Berger, who runs the SciGuy blog for the Houston Chronicle is asking readers to take a survey about their religious beliefs. His post was inspired by a recently released survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The survey found that Texans have more devout views than other Americans. But Eric’s blog is on science, and some people believe science leads people away from God. Berger is trying to find out if his readers have different views than the average Texan.

And, yes, there were quite a few comments left on his post, many of which have very strong views. A reader Diogenes had a comment that I think sums it all up well, "You’re a brave soul to be bringing this topic to bear!"

Ed Silverman over at Pharmalot is asking his readers this question: "Is data mining protected commercial speech?" Silverman has a poll users can take, and many people have chosen to leave comments on the issue.

This topic came up because Vermont has a proposed law that would restrict the sale of prescription drug info that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes, according to Silverman. As you can imagine, some people are not thrilled with this proposed law. Like say, PhRMA.

The best part is that many of the people weighing in on this issue on his blog are doctors and others in the medical industry. Silverman gets great comments from readers because he has honed in on a very specific niche.

Kent Fischer of The Dallas Morning News recently wrote a blog post about the HBO documentary ‘Hard Times at Douglass High’ and how it reminded him of the Dallas Independent School District. The documentary chronicled one year in the life of a Baltimore high school, another traditionally low-performing school district.

Most of the post was about his thoughts on the documentary and what he witnessed in it. It wasn’t the kind of content, however, that would make sense in print. Fischer is not a TV critic or film reviewer — he is a beat reporting, covering education.

But what Fischer did makes perfect sense on the Web. He used his post about the documentary to be a conversation starter for his beat. Many readers chimed in with their thoughts on the documentary, the Dallas school district and inner-city education in general.

At the end of his post, Fischer suggested setting up a chat room to coincide with the next airing of the documentary. That has the potential to really get a conversation going.

All of these examples showcase how beat reporters can use the Web as a conversation starter and a way to engage readers. Engaged readers will come back more often, which everybody — especially the people controlling the purse strings — likes. And what they are doing on their blogs is often much more powerful and enlightening than "man on the street" stories in print.

They are not just asking 3-5 random people to comment on a story. They are starting real conversations with people who care about important issues. In the end, that’s just covering their beats better using modern Web technology.