MLive.com is hiring two journalists in Lansing.

In an age of newsroom cuts, that’s welcome news. Journalism jobs are a precious commodity, and as a recovering journalist, journalism educator and advocate of the power of journalism – not to mention as someone who professionally relies on journalists to help spread a message – I generally think our society is better off with more professional journalists.

But some of the new jobs being added to newsrooms across the country – MLive included – aren’t for the journalists of old many of us picture – the Woodwards and Bernsteins out on the beat digging for information that betters society. That’s not necessarily bad (we need new ideas in journalism, after all), but it’s not necessarily good either.

MLive is looking for a “journalist/blogger,” someone to “aggregate content, provide analysis, interact with readers and cover live events in the Lansing-East Lansing area.” It’s the same model the website – which is the online home to content from Michigan’s Booth Newspapers – has used in Detroit. (Booth doesn’t have a newspaper in Lansing or Detroit.)

In journalism circles, “aggregate” is a dirty word. Aggregators – like Google News and Huffington Post – don’t do a lot of original reporting. They repackage the work some other journalist has done – making money off of someone else’s work. That infuriates publishers.

It’s a real concern for those of us who want – and need – good journalism, too. The really good stuff – which happens to be the stuff that’s most interesting to aggregate – requires original reporting. If media outlets are hiring journalists to be aggregators, that means they may be hiring fewer to do original reporting.

And then what will we aggregate?