Have to agree with Ethel about blog readership.
A newspaper already has a readership so writing to it gets to that audience straight away.
But there are about 100 million bogs (give or take) and to get people visiting your blog is difficult (they have to have a reason).
Having said that, setting up a blog with blogger can do no harm and may get him into computers.
Here is a small local blog I found that gives an idea what can be achieved.
http://solihull-2006.blogspot.com/