WestportNow: Community publishing via Weblog
SPECIAL FEATURE: Weblogs are an excellent tool for independent publishers to reach large audiences, but few Weblogs regularly break new information online. Gordon Joseloff, a former CBS News and UPI correspondent, started a local news site about Westport, Conn., in March that takes the form of a Weblog, WestportNow.com. The site fills a need in the community for local information and often scoops other publication. It is an excellent example of how the Weblog format can be used to deliver original, valuable information to an interested audience -- and offers a great model for local community publishing.For the latest installment of our Behind-the-Scenes feature, CyberJournalist.net's Jonathan Dube asked Joseloff to explain why he started WestportNow.com and talk about the exclusive stories the Weblog has broken. Here's what he had to say:
WestportNow.com serves the high-profile, high-net worth hometown of Martha Stewart, Paul Newman, etc., with daily online journalism and photos. Although the town of 26,000 in the heart of Fairfield County, Connecticut's "Gold Coast area" is served by both a semi-weekly and a weekly newspaper, daily coverage is sparse.
WestportNow.com fills the void and has quickly become the online source for news of Westport for those in town and around the world.
The site has broken a number of local stories later picked up by national news media, including The New York Times, and even caused the Times to run several corrections in stories about Westport.
The most notable story first reported by WestportNow.com and later picked up by local media (and then the New York Times, which led even to some foreign pickups -- a German radio station called me for an interview) involved a controversy over naming a local bridge after a late Westporter (Ruth Steinkraus Cohen) who was an ardent supporter of the United Nations.
Opponents of the proposal (who lost) wanted to turn the whole thing into a referendum on U.N. Security Council actions/non-actions leading up to the Iraq War. Because the bridge is state-owned, it required state legislative approval.
WestportNow reported exclusively on the approval by the state senate moments after it happened (I monitored TV coverage available in this area only via the Internet), along with details of an attempt by a state legislator from Westport who tried to derail the approval. The first mention of this in the local papers came eight days later when I kindly sent a reporter the text of the senate debate which I had transcribed (and still was not available from the legislative office, which takes two weeks to turn around full transcripts from its outside transcription service).
WestportNow.com first reported on the increasingly nasty circulation war between two area dailies -- the independent The Hour in Norwalk and the Tribune Company-owned The Advocate in Stamford, which now has a Norwalk edition. The New York Times Connecticut section did a takeout several weeks later.
WestportNow reported that Connecticut's first suspected SARS case was in Westport (it did not turn out to be full-blown SARS) at a time when state health officials were stonewalling state news media (as well as the state attorney general) over releasing names of towns in which there were suspected SARS cases.
Most recently, WestportNow first reported (with pictures) the dramatic rescue of a teenager from a burning car by a passing motorist. The semi-weekly Westport News caught up with the story five days later, with no on-scene photos. The other paper missed it entirely, as did the local cable news operation, Cablevision News-12.
News-12 has now taken to regularly monitoring the site and is citing WestportNow.com on air as the source of stories.
It is ironic that with so many media-savvy residents in Westport (editors, writers, publishers of national publications, etc. -- not to mention our celebrities) that Westport is so underserved news-wise on a daily basis. Helping WestportNow, of course, is the high broadband penetration in the town.
I have been heartened by the response. To close, I'll pass along this piece of fan mail received recently:
"Ever since I found your site (only two weeks ago) I find myself opening it daily, sending the address to my three grown children who grew up here in Westport and now live in PA and MA - we are all enjoying it very much and at a family event in NJ last weekend it was the 'talk of the table'!! Keep up the good work - it is appreciated and looked forward to with anticipation." -- Rita Leyden
Read more of CyberJournalist.net's special Behind-the-Scenes features...
Oct 03, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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