MGP2006: Democracy & Independence -- Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World

A discussion about "next newsroom" wages -- at OJR

Over at USC's Online Journalism Review site, follow the discussion underneat Tom Grubisich's post about the potential for a network of  hyperlocal sites. Tom is now web editor for The World Bank, and has a deep
journalism background. Here's the cross link:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070719grubisich/

Wally Bowen comments on Jon Fine's "It's tough to make local work on the web"

Business Week online is out this week with a short dissection of Backfence, the hyperlocal operation founded by two WashingtonPost.com veterans, including Mark Potts. It's not critical of Potts in any personal sense. But BW columnist Jon Fine concludes that doing local online news with banner advertising alone is a tough slog if you are neither a dominant existing print player or a stand-alone-journalist-style operation with voice. This prompts Wally Bowen, originator of the Asheville, N.C., Mountain Area Information Network (and an MGP2006 alumnus) to observe that there may be validation in the tale in his non-profit's effort to combine local web news with a low-power FM station, broadband and dial-up Internet connectivity.

Writes Bowen: "This Business Week article underscores the difficulty of creating an advertising-supported, local journalism web portal.And it also underscores the potential of our business model, based on ISP revenue and public radio-style underwriting revenue from both online and broadcast platforms. Optimizing the underwriting will be based on our ability to build our online audience, especially as more and more folks stream [our FM station] on the web."

READ: "it's tough to make local work on the web" http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_13/b4027019.htm

MGP2006 alum's newsblog stories follow arrest of Connecticut activist-photographer along gubernatorial parade route

The arrest of a Connecticut political activist and photographer -- who says he was acting as a journalist -- along a gubernatorial inaugural parade route has caught the attention of MGP2006 alum Christine Stuart, of CTNewsJunkie, who is continuing to follow the case of Ken Krayeske -- along with the Hartford Courant and radio station WTIC. The case raises the question of what constitutes a journalist -- and journalism. Is someone with a history of political activism forever a police suspect as a potential "troublemaker" even when he behaves as a journalist might?

A good summary (including a link to a TV news video report):
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=6010797&nav=menu29_2
A witness statement:
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-nichols-statement-0130,0,1044185.story

Stuart writes:

"Here's the latest from the court appearance:
http://ctnewsjunkie.com/index.php/2007/01/30/state_gives_up_nothing_in_krayeske_case 

"Basically the prosecutor refused witness statements from Ken's attorney so he asked the judge for a supervised pre-trial conference on March 2. There's links to a radio interview with the Chief of Police at the bottom of the story which are scary. I'll attach a pdf of the arrest report. Unfortunately I'm still unable to upload pdf's but will be able to as soon as the redesign is complete at the end of the month. I switched servers last weekend and will move to a Moveable Type software program soon. Breaking this story was the best thing that's happened since I took over. I told Ken (who I am friends with) I was sorry that his misfortune was my success. He was happy for me.

"The most interesting media angle comes from my story about his application to the Society of Professional Journalists:

http://ctnewsjunkie.com/index.php/2007/01/11/spj_friend_or_foe

"I think it illustrates how traditional media isn't sure what to make of the Internet and blogs. Today the Hartford Courant rolled out a blog type software program to allow readers to post after stories. I wonder how much response they will get. I'll share my observations in April."

Christine Stuart: http://ctnewsjunkie.com Windsor, Conn., 860.978.1446 cell 860.219.0078 home office

Earlier post: >
>>
>> MGP2006 alum Christine Stuart, the former MSM reporter who now runs the >> Connecticut News Junkie newsblog, says her initially exclusive story about >> the arrest of a reporter while taking pictures of the state's new governor >> has gotten more "hits" than anything she's blogged previously. the just of >> the story is that Hartford Police arrested a free-lance journalist while >> photographing Gov. M. Jodi Rell's inaugural parade. The journalist was >> formerly a Green Party political activist. Her story is thorough, with lots >> of reader comments piling up. >>
>> MORE: >>
> http://ctnewsjunkie.com/index.php/2007/01/05/reporter_arrested_for_political_activism >>

Ken Doctor writes about a new citizen-journalism entry in The Bronx

MGP2006 alum Ken Doctor has posted to his blog about a new entrant among local online news outlets -- this one in the Bronx neighborhoods of New York. Here's the link:
http://www.contentbridges.com/2006/12/west_bronx_onli.html

Village Soup funder unveils concept of "commons"; says he might give up technology to cooperative

The founder of VillageSoup.COM, the Camden, Maine, local news website and weekly print combination, is proposing the formation of a national "Village Soup Commons" of affiliated, locally owned websites which would share a common platform owned by a cooperative.  Richard Anderson (MGP2006 participant) discussed the "common" concept at an Oct. 5 citizen-journalism summit in Washington, D.C. sponsored by J-Lab, at the University of Maryland.  In a portion of a longer talk, Anderson says he might be prepared to contribute his family's proprietary Village Soup content-and-community management system to a cooperatively owned common organization which would operate in a manner similar to the Visa International Service Corp.

(Click on the right arrow on the bar below to launch 30-minute streaming audio of Anderson's presentation at the J-Lab citizen-media summit.)

OR DOWNLOAD a 2.27-minute MP3 excerpt of his description of Village Soup Common.

VillageSoup founder bullet-point summarizes J-Lab's citizen-media summit

Richard Anderson, co-founder of Camden, Maine's VillageSoup.com, and an MGP2006 participant and presenter, was among those attending the Oct. 5, 2006, Citizen Media Summit in Washington, D.C., organized by J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism.  Here are his impressions from the summit:

1.       Getting citizens to submit stories online is tough            

a.       You have to really market the idea, promote it, and nurture your contributors

b.       Establish relationship with them

c.       Term “citizen journalist” is offputting. Easier to be “contributor.”

d.       Giving opportunity to be in newspaper is a motivator, if you have print product

e.       Less than 1% of population will contribute

f.        Consistent contribution by small group makes casual contributing by a much larger group possible (Wikipedia: with a world-wide population base has only 615 core contributors) (BlufftonToday: with a 16,000 household population base has 600 posters, 60 addicted posers)

g.       Site operator needs to be a guide, facilitator, trainer

h.      Reporter becomes participant, observer, listener (spot trends and tips to beat competition to the story)

2.      Sustainability online is tough

a.       Barrier to entry low, barrier to sustainability daunting

b.       Cost of distribution low, cost of attaining advertising high

3.      Everyone focused on generating traffic online, not online revenue

a.       Address the desire to connect personally (sharing personal profiles, insights, interests)

b.       Address the desire to have multimedia and share multimedia (Bakersfield.com; YourHub.com, BlufftonToday.com)

c.       Harness participation, aggregating personal media to feed print

d.       Websites should be designed for active contribution, not for passive consumption

4.      Professional journalism is needed

a.       Easy to get facts, hard to get facts straight and tell cohesive story

b.       Site operators realizing how much not being covered by MSM, or not covered accurately

c.       Breaking news is a grind – you have to really work at it

d.       Breaking news sets the agenda for what’s important in a community

e.       Local papers have a revolving door of people writing news, changes every 18 months, under 25, from away; what is implication on civic knowledge and history?

5.       Place Blogs represents a significant factor in the local media ecology

a.       Place-Blogs (phrase coined by Lisa Williams) consist of sustained attention to a particular place, one person, one group, open to participation

b.       Williams says: not a newspaper, may contain random acts of journalism

c.       About the “lived experience” of a place, she says.

d.       Examples are: BuffaloRising.com, DCBlogs.com, Edhat.com (Santa Barbara), highway278.com  (Paulding County, Ga.), KingstonSprings.org (Kingston Springs, Tenn.), Olyblog.net (Olymbia, Wash.)

e.       New site coming, Placeblogger.com

6.      Advice from Steve Yelvington of Morris Digital

a.       Use observation, not research; use wooden arrows, not golden arrows to indistinct targets

b.       Learn from doing, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks

c.       Discover open source, BluffingToday built on Drupal (so is YourHub.com, H2otown.info)

d.       Assume everything obsolete in 18 months

e.       Adopt “good enough” approach, not everything it could be

f.        Personal leadership, not tech is the key

7.      Summary

a.       Analysis is appreciated, but breaking news is what people really click to

b.       Getting the facts is easy. Sorting through them and creating a coherent story is not.

c.       Getting content is easy. Getting money to support it is not.

d.       A very small percent will actively participate. It takes a huge base to create a critical mass of participants.

e.       You really have to promote to get participation.

f.        Use many wooden arrows to find the fog-shrouded target, few golden ones

g.       Hyper-local sweetspot  is 20,000 to 40,000 population.

ePluribus editors post Q&A with iBrattleboro operators

The editors at ePluribus Media have posted an insightful Q&A interview with Lise LePage and Chris Grotke, founders/operators of the iBrattleboro (Vt.), local online citizen journalism site. LePage and Grotke talk about their plans for a gradual addition of advertising -- and a classified-ad module they are getting set to unveil. They reiterate that their focus is not on making money in the short term, although they say they would like to be able to sell the site and retire when they are older. LePage and
Grotke were the volunteer coordinators of the citizen-media track at MGP2006 -- and ePluribus folks were among attendees. The Q&A, with a growing list of comments and exchange, is posted at: URL: http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/9/8/174221/9258