Why Two Competing News ‘Indies’ in Suburban Charlotte Are Teaming Up
The independent digital community news site Davidson News and sister site Cornelius News are teaming up with six-year-old print-based Citizen Media Group in Charlotte. To see why these competing “indies” decided to partner, and what they hope to achieve, we spoke recently with their founders…
From Print to Patch to His Own ‘Indie’ Site — A 25-Year Saga
Steven Jack, who was regional editor for eight Patch sites before leaving in the first round of layoffs, did what many of his terminated colleagues did — he started his own independent site. In less than a year, he has captured 31,000 unique visitors for his Only Oswego, which more than equals the town’s population…
Locable Founder: Community Sites Need More Than News to Thrive
Not every community news site wants to become a network. But that doesn’t mean “one-off’s” can’t benefit from some of the advantages of scale. Locable founder Brian Ostrovsky spoke with Street Fight recently how single publishers can do quite well even in markets where they’re facing competitors who have chosen to go bigger…
How Jim Brady’s Billy Penn Tailors News to Philly’s Millennials
BillyPennDigital local news pioneer Jim Brady launched mobile-focused Billy Penn in Philadelphia a month ago. Brady, joined by other Billy Penn staffers, talked with Street Fight recently about what the site is doing to stand out in a major metro market that has more than 70 websites covering local news…
Brooklyn Site’s Loyalty Pitch Tries to Answer: ‘How Many Customers Did You Bring Me?’
A soon-to-be launched section in Bushwick Daily — called Village — will seek to build more and deeper connections between residents and merchants of Bushwick. The centerpiece of Village is an in-house loyalty program where users will get a bonus when they make their first purchase. If they become a frequent customer, they get another bonus and a Foursquare-type badge…
‘Legacy’ Publishers Make Big Move Into Content Marketing
Local newspapers and TV broadcasters are making a major innovative leap into the digital space that they hope will bring them big bucks from sponsor-funded content. LMC Executive Director Rusty Coats said member companies are confident that the funded content will become “a major source of [their] digital revenue.”
Suburban Nashville ‘Indie’ Thrives Amid Gannett Revamp at Tennessean
Five years after she co-founded an independent community news site in metro Nashville’s most affluent suburb, Kelly Gilfillan is now running — and growing — her company by herself. Gilfillan tells Street Fight how she competes with a $5.4 billion media corporation as she pursues her “indie” entrepreneurial course…
Gannett Papers Evolve to Avoid Becoming Publishing’s ‘Buggy Whips’
In the news media’s digitally focused 21st century, newspapers are often dismissed as an “industrial-age” product. But it’s not clear that they’ll become what whale oil was to the 19th century’s petroleum . For a macro-look at how this is playing out at Gannett, we caught up with the media giant’s SVP for News, Kate Marymont…
How One Gannett Paper Is Reacting After ‘Slow Slide’ From Cost Cutting
In August of this year, the entire editorial staff at the Asheville Citizen-Times was required to apply for re-employment in a reorganization with new job descriptions. Executive Editor Josh Awtry told readers: “It would have been easier to change nothing in the way we operate … but we weren’t ready to accept that fate.” Here, Awtry details for Street Fight his team’s major changes…
Why Entrepreneurial Publishing is Catching Fire in Local Digital
Traditional journalistic publishing models are collapsing right before our eyes as entrepreneurs — often with no standard journalistic background — are starting highly innovative and financially promising community news websites in many metro markets. In this Q & A, the University of Florida’s Randy Bennett explains how and why this new model of publishing is starting to replace the old models exemplified by the corporate businesses of “legacy” newspapers and broadcasters…
Will Local Media Consortium Save Lee From Knife’s Edge?
Lee Enterprises is meeting its Chapter 11 debt obligations, recently stretched out debt payments at lower interest, and has cut expenses by $285 million — albeit at cost to editorial quality at the local and community levels. But with the company likely having done much of the cost cutting available, the pressure is on to keep increasing digital ad revenues…
Revived EveryBlock Looking to Work With Community News Sites
EveryBlock is back in business under its new operator, Comcast. Re-launched in Chicago last January and in Philadelphia in August, it will be expanding to five more cities this year. Here, Comcast Local Media Director Paul Wright defends the old EveryBlock, and details new features of the resurrected data aggregator…
Are Community News Sites and Investors Ready for Each Other?
Venture-capital and angel investors have been avoiding digital community news — but there’s no mystery about why. There are some profitable one-offs, but most investors aren’t interested in one-offs. They want to put their money in the possibility of a good-sized payoff. That will only come with community news that is part of a network…