I, Reporter

links for 2007-02-01

• the Constant Observer: RealTown.com to use Citizen Journalism to power content
  "What RealTown is asking for, though, is different from a site asking folks to post news-type stories with no agreement for any type of compensation. Realtors powering the "citizen" content do indeed stand a chance of some profit from posting."
  (tags: citizen+journalism economics business ethics conflict)

Videobloggers, Take Note: Nokia N93i

Forgive me from getting geeky for a moment -- but oh, this is sweet...   

Check out the Nokia 93i, which was featured at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. I heard about it this morning on Slashdot Review, and it had me drooling...

links for 2007-01-18

• EFF: Eli Lilly Zyprexa Litigation
  EFF is defending the First Amendment rights of a citizen-journalist to link from a public "wiki" to electronic copies of damaging internal Eli Lilly documents relating to the controversial prescription drug Zyprexa.""
  (tags: citizen+journalism law info+access health tidbits+fodder)

links for 2007-01-15

• New Year, New Resource for Colorado (metroconsumer.com)
  "where consumers can go to find local businesses to use, rate companies, write reviews, and receive money saving discounts from these companies. The site is now growing with cos who vow their integrity and responsibility to the CO consumer."
  (tags: social+media business reviews Colorado)
• ruthholladay.com - "Get published!" begs Muncie Star Press. Unless, of course, you happen to be a competitor
  "K. Paul was told by a Star Press editor that "Get Published!" is going to "be selective" about businesses. "I don't think it's newsworthy to promote your businesses," said the paper's online community editor, Phil Beebe, in an email to K. Paul."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism PR+marketing business problems competition)
• Newspaper to Local Blogs: Drop Dead | Placeblogger
  "Independent placeblogs like the Muncie Free Press of Muncie, IN, are headed directly into head-to-head competition with newspapers who are starting to wrap placeblog-like community features around their traditional product."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism newspapers competition business)
• ePluribus Media Community || "Get Published!" - Or Don't: Gannett Decides
  "Sounds to me like Phil Beebe, The Star Press, and Gannett (the publisher of The Star Press) are hiding from K. Paul Mallasch and the Muncie Free Press, using excuses to exclude him from what they are trying to sell as participatory journalism."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder commentary competition newspapers business)
• The Star Press: Muncie Free Press is not Newsworthy || Muncie Free Press
  "I've been told the only way I can get coverage in their newspaper is to buy advertising. I suggest that this runs counter to the whole idea of 'citizen journalism' and shows that this attempt of theirs is just 'window dressing' and a way to increase page
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism newspapers competition business advertising commentary)
• Bode Media Inc.: Backfence and Local Communities Online
  "Putting $3 million into an thriving community is going to have an entirely different effect than putting $3 million into a community that doesn’t exist. Scaling correctly with local can be boiled down simply to not putting the cart before the horse."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism hyperlocal placeblogs business economics community)
• Kemplog » Blog Archive » Citizen Journalist vs. Established Player
  "local Gannett papers seem to decide that they need to be doing something online and throw up a site completely ignoring the local online community that has already been in place."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder newspapers citizen+journalism community business competition)

links for 2007-01-14

• Susan Mernit's Blog: TV New Jersey: New (video) aggregator and Valentine's Day love call
  "Advance Internet's taken the problem that New Jersey's never really had a state-wide TV station and used v-logging and YouTube to address this issue with the just launched tv jersey, the user generated content and video version of nj.com"
  (tags: video media sharing citizen+journalism tidbits+fodder New+Jersey)

links for 2007-01-11

• Backfence co-founder: 'Very excited about where we're going' - CyberJournalist.net - Online News Association - Citizen Media Monitor
  "Backfence.com Co-founder Mark Potts tells CyberJournalist.net he's returned to the citizen media company to lead the core management team and employees through the transition, after a number of people were let go and the other co-founder, Susan DeFife, r
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism business media problems)
• Susan Mernit's Blog: Looking at Local: Judy's Book, Backfence and the hand-crafted cigar
  Scale & the hyperlocal, sustainable biz question: "Most of the really good--and viable--hyperlocal sites--are small businesses that serve a focused audience. Cecent ad revenues but nothing like the big #s VCs need for their $5 to $13 MM investments."
  (tags: tidbits+fodder citizen+journalism hyperlocal business economics)

Backfence Backpedals: Lessons Learned

(NOTE: I originally published this article on Poynter's E-Media Tidbits blog. I'm republishing it here, slightly re-edited.)

Last week, Backfence (which runs a high-profile family of hyperlocal citizen-media sites) announced a substantial retrenchment. CEO and co-founder Susan DeFife resigned, citing differences with the company's board of directors. Also, 12 of 18 employees were laid off.

Ouch! This news has spawned much thoughtful discussion and interpretation. For instance, see the comment thread from this Local Onliner post.

Search Engine Watch noted: "This is an unfortunate setback, given the company's growth over the last 18 months from its original D.C. area community sites, to its west coast expansion and many Bay Area site launches (it now totals 13 sites in D.C., Chicago and Bay Area). ...Its apparent cash flow problems and layoffs could be telling, and a more sustainable hyperlocal strategy could be in an aggregation model like that of the newly launched Placeblogger. Time will tell if this is the case."

Yes indeed -- finding a sustainable way to financially support local news content is a thorny issue. Personally, I don't think conventional advertising can continue to shoulder most of that burden, in any media.

So how can you build a sustainable business based on local content, including citizen journalism?...

'NewsHour' on New Media

The NewsHour had an interesting segment (mp3) last night on media trends, with some discussion of citizen journalism toward the end of the segment.

Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia J-School, who's been embroiled in debate over the value of citizen media following his New Yorker essay on the topic last summer (see Rebecca McKinnon's blog posting for reaction to his piece), had this to say on the PBS program: "There's nothing wrong with citizen journalism at all and a lot of it is a healthy development. ... However, what I haven't seen citizen journalism do yet is really provide an ongoing, regular report that monitors the activities of government and business and so on. It's a kind wonderful add-on and corrective to flaws in the conversation, but it doesn't conduct the conversation, and that's the value of traditional media."

But just to cite one example, wouldn't the Sunlight Foundation projects on earmarks and congressional family business be exactly the kind of ongoing, regular report he says is missing? And aren't the many hyperlocal citJ sites that are covering what no local or regional news organization is covering an example of conducting the conversation?"

-- A. Adam Glenn