Archive by Author
The Models: Hyperlocals & the Framework
Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
This set of spreadsheets incorporates two models: hyperlocal and the sales, support, and technology framework that we believe is necessary to optimize businesses in the ecosystem. We believe an organization that enables advertising networks and other services to support the local news ecosystem is both a sustainable business and will make individual hyperlocal news organizations […]
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The Models: New News Organization
Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
This model envisions a new, metro-wide news organization serving a market of five million people that operates on a smaller scale and performs a wide variety of tasks. It will produce original unique beat and investigative reporting and it will also work collaboratively with the other members of the ecosystem and its readers to add […]
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The Models: Not-for-Profit News
Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
A number of promising not-for-profit news organizations, providing both national and local coverage, have launched recently. We want to show the level of resources that might be available in a given market to augment local news gathering efforts. Researching the available charitable money in a market, we picked a hypothetical bottom line of $3 million […]
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New York Times Trains Local Youth in Blogging Workshop
Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
by Mike Reicher What do you get when seasoned professional journalists train novice teenage bloggers in the tools of the trade? We’ve started to answer that question this summer at The Local, The New York Times’ collaborative blog covering neighborhoods in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Since launching in March, one of our goals at The […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: Sun Valley Online
Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Sun Valley Online, a news site covering the ski town of Ketchum, Idaho, launched in 2004. Dave Chase came on board as a business partner in 2006 after spending a number of years at Microsoft and working on various other media/technology projects. He is also a principal at the newly minted local news infrastructure company, […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: Pegasus News
Posted on 06. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Mike Orren launched Pegasus News in 2006 with the idea that local neighborhood news is more important “than things happening on the other side of town.” Now the site covers what appears to be every neighborhood in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Although Pegasus has gone through some corporate turnover, it is now owned by Gap […]
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Revenues are Final
Posted on 03. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Not sure if this is encouraging or something else, but we’ve finished building our page of revenue opportunities. We heard a few very good ideas, but we’d already accounted for many of them. Here are the types of revenue opportunities, beyond online advertising that we think are possible (go to the page for details on […]
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News Innovators on the Frontline: Brooklyn Based
Posted on 03. Aug, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
Founded two years ago by Nicole Davis, Brooklyn Based is a thrice-weekly events and entertainment email and blog that focuses exclusively on New York City’s largest borough. In addition to listing events, Davis and her partners, Annaliese Griffin and Chrysanthe Tenentes also write feature articles on food, music, film and anything else they think is […]
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Revenues, Again
Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
The first cut of our revenue opportunities list is now up here and in the side bar. We have another half dozen categories to add to this list, but please let us know if you think we’ve left anything out or missed the boat on something entirely. From this first list, I was surprised by […]
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Requests for Revenues
Posted on 29. Jul, 2009 by Matthew Sollars.
No, we’re not asking for donations. But, we do want to hear your ideas for new revenue opportunities for online news organizations. As we’ve been talking to news start ups from around the country, most everyone says they want to hear about new ways to make money, whether it’s to hire more reporters or just […]
