California paper undertakes ambitious participatory journalism project
By Jonathan Dube
The Bakersfield Californian has embarked on one of the most ambitious participatory journalism efforts to date in the United States, launching a community newspaper and Web site in which nearly all the articles and pictures are contributed for free by people in the community.
Since the first print edition of The Northwest Voice was launched May 13, more than 200 individuals have contributed articles, pictures and events, and revenue has grown 33 percent. In all, about 90 percent of the content on the Web site and in the newspaper is contributed by the community.
"In a world in which a growing number of readers are becoming publishers, we ignore this trend at our own peril," says Mary Lou Fulton, the publisher of The Northwest Voice and the New Product Development Manager for The Bakersfield Californian. "The open source model offers us a new way to connect with readers, to better understand their worries and joys, and to enable them to share some of themselves with the world. It gives readers a personal and emotional stake in our products, and I believe that is critical to the future of our industry."
Related: CyberJournalist.net's Q&A with Mary Lou Fulton
Fulton says the publication accepts all contributions, provided they are local and legal. Everything is published first on the Web site, northwestvoice.com, and then the best items are included in the print edition.
(Online edition)
The newspaper is published every other Thursday and delivered free to all 22,000 homes in Northwest Bakersfield. Another 6,000 copies are distributed via free-standing racks.
The revenue model relies primarily on display and classified advertising in the print edition, though online advertising also is available. In particular, the Voice is focused on selling ads to small businesses who can’t afford the daily Bakersfield Californian or prefer a more targeted product. More than half of the advertisers are new to the company and 76 percent is in smaller, more inexpensive sizes — 1/8 page ads, coupons and directory listings. "We feel we’re hitting that sweet spot with smaller businesses," Fulton says.
FOUR COMMUNITY CONTENT STREAMS
Community content is a great idea, but many news organizations have struggled with developing consistent sources of reliable contributions. In order to ensure this happens, The Voice has developed four content streams:
• Core contributors. The Voice identified a lead person at every school, larger churches, youth sports organizations and the parks district. This "Top 25" group is contributing about 50% of the content
• Columnists. Six columnists write about community interests (off-roading, horses, pets, gardening, parenting and restaurants). About 25% of the content comes from them.
• Occasional contributions. About 10% of the content comes from occasional contributors.
• Editor-created. Editors write a cover story and some inside items, which makes up about 10% of the content.
To make this process as simple as possible, all content is contributed through northwestvoice.com, using a online content management system iUpload of Ontario, Canada. This allows all content to flow into a single queue for approval and archiving.
Most contributions are screened by editors before being published to the Web. Nevertheless, all articles include the disclaimer: The opinions and accuracy of information in this article are the responsibility of the contributor.
"We included that disclaimer to establish accountability between the contributor and the reader," Fulton says. "Most of our community contributions come from 'trusted' individuals like school teachers, youth sports coaches and ministers, so we don’t feel the need to double-check on everything they write. If we receive contributions regarding a public controversy, we do make sure the facts are correct but the presentation of the information is entirely up to the individual."
As soon as editors approve content, then it is immediately published online. Editors can also mark a box to send items the print edition, and then it is automatically exported to Quark for the print edition.
(Print edition)
After the first six weeks of publication, the mix of contributions from the community has broken down like this:
• 36% pictures
• 13% school news
• 11% community events
• 10% columnists
• 8% bulletin board/miscellaneous items
• 7% youth sports
• 5% celebrations
• 2% church news
Fulton says she has been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing from the community contributors. "I expected we’d have to do a lot more rewriting," she says. "I’m also surprised that we haven’t received more content that is inappropriate or off-topic since we offer to publish everything, but we have received only a few contributions that we had to politely decline."
For those interested in learning more about the project, Fulton has created a site, opensourcejournalism.org, that explains the background and approach used for The Voice in the hope that other newspapers will try similar experiments.
"I have been fascinated by the idea of collaborative publishing for some years and want to evangelize this concept because I think it's a powerful one," says Fulton, who has worked for both traditional media (AP, Los Angeles Times) and online media (AOL, washingtonpost.com).
Related Link: Behind the Scenes: Read CyberJournalist.net's full Q&A with Mary Lou Fulton
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8 Weblogs reference 'California paper undertakes ambitious participatory journalism project' Participatory Journalism Up CloseTrackback excerpt: Cyberjournalist looks at The Northwest Voice, one of the most ambitious participatory journalism efforts to date in the United States. It includes a community newspaper and Web site in which nearly all the articles and pictures are contributed for free [Read More]
Posted on Micro Persuasion at July 16, 2004 4:30 AM
Trackback excerpt: Not directly Weblog related, but personal publishing related nonetheless: The Bakersfield Californian has embarked on one of the most ambitious participatory journalism efforts to date in the United States, launching a community newspaper and Web site in [Read More]
Posted on Weblogg-ed - Using Weblogs and RSS in Education at July 16, 2004 6:46 AM
Trackback excerpt: The Bakersfield Californian, has started an interesting project. Its spinoff The Northwest Voice is a neighborhood paper with a newshole filled entirely by readers and residents. All of the stories and photos submitted are posted to the paper's Web sit... [Read More]
Posted on infobong.com at July 16, 2004 10:29 AM
Trackback excerpt: Months into its grand citizen's media experiment, the Bakersfield Californian's Northwest Voice (see background info on this combo online/direct mail publication) is drawing a loyal, participatory audience - while also taking in advertising dollars - a... [Read More]
Posted on JoeTerrito.com at July 16, 2004 2:14 PM
Trackback excerpt: California paper undertakes ambitious participatory journalism project . [Read More]
Posted on The Mediaburn Radio Weblog at July 16, 2004 6:43 PM
Trackback excerpt: The Bakersfield Californian has launched The Northwest Voice, an every-other-week community paper where 90 percent of the content is provided by people in the community. Says Publisher Mary Lou Fulton: "It’s interesting and exciting to see passive co... [Read More]
Posted on Thoughtsignals at July 16, 2004 7:36 PM
Trackback excerpt: Opinions on the awkward relationship between weblogs and established journalism have become deafening since the election run-up, and they don't look like going away any time soon. Last week, CBS Marketwatch's Frank Barnako poured scorn as Big Media beg... [Read More]
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Trackback excerpt: Please visit our Multimedia Center for Gambling Web Site - Gambling Web Site. New articles are added on a daily basis. Also visit our additional links page from Gambling Web Site. This information will be ... [Read More]
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