Archive for July, 2009
News Innovators on the Frontline: Texas Watchdog
Posted on 17. Jul, 2009 by Damian Ghigliotty.
Two and half years ago, Trent Seibert, of Texas Watchdog, saw the potential for a local online investigative news outlet. Having worked in both journalism — at The Tennessean and The Denver Post — as well government accountability — at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research — Trent had all the right credentials. Fortunately, a […]
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E-commerce and News, Lessons from the UK's Telegraph
Posted on 17. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Revenue, revenue, revenue. For good reason in this economy, all of the sites we’ve talked to so far have wanted to hear ideas for making more of it. So we’ve been a bit surprised at how few are experimenting with e-commerce, which is frequently held up as a strong potential revenue stream for online news. […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: CityBizList
Posted on 15. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
CityBizList is a free email product sent to business people every morning in five metro areas—Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. Founded in 2005 by Edwin Warfield, CityBizList is aimed at the general business reader, but with an added emphasis on commercial real estate and the lawyers and bankers who serve that industry in […]
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A Budding Investigative News Network
Posted on 14. Jul, 2009 by Damian Ghigliotty.
Watchdog journalism has a viable future. Twenty-five nonprofit news organizations recently came together to form the beginnings of an investigative news network to fill in the growing void left by newspapers. Some of the budding network’s members include Bill Buzenberg, executive director of The Center for Public Integrity, and Leonard Downie, Jr., former executive editor […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: Gothamist
Posted on 13. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Gothamist.com was launched in 2003, as co-founder Jake Dobkin says, “by a few friends having a good time, talking about a subject they were interested in.” They only realized a few years later that they could sell more than enough advertising to sustain the site. Today, the Gothamist is a profitable brand with sites in […]
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Talking Fantasy Newsroom
Posted on 09. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Martin Langeveld over at the NiemanLab posted yesterday on the essentials he would build into a newsroom if he were starting one from scratch. His ideas include what should be obvious by now, like incorporating the url into branding and encouraging what Jarvis calls the link economy. Langeveld also suggests wikifying the news and thinking […]
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Lessons from SeattleCourant.com
Posted on 08. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
We’ve tried to highlight some successful local news sites out there in recent weeks (and we’ll do more, so please take our survey!), but there is no question that for most start-ups life bends more towards the Hobbesian view. The story of the SeattleCourant.com, which shut down late last month, is a stark reminder of […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: MGoBlog
Posted on 07. Jul, 2009 by Damian Ghigliotty.
Brian Cook — a longtime University of Michigan sports fan — runs MGoBlog.com as a solo operation and brings in enough money to keep his blog up to speed with the likes of freshman quarterback Denard Robinson. Brian launched his site in December 2004 and has watched its audience grow to 100,000 unique visitors to […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: WestSeattleBlog
Posted on 03. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
The husband-and-wife team of Patrick Sand and Tracy Record run WestSeattleBlog.com. She is the site’s primary reporter and editor, while he handles advertising sales and business development. Since January 2006, the pair have covered the bedroom community of West Seattle (over 65,000 residents) seven days a week, 365 days a year. They started selling ads […]
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Calling all Moms (that Blog)
Posted on 02. Jul, 2009 by Damian Ghigliotty.
Over the past week we’ve been reaching out to hyperlocal and highly targeted news sites to find out what business models they use to sustain and grow their businesses (see Matt’s post below.) One of the quickest growing trends in blogging these days — along with sports, music, food and local news — is mom […]
