Grassroots journalism status report
Are there really a thriving communities to justify the hype about hyperlocal journalism? Web editor Tom Grubisich peeks behind the curtains of grassroots news sites.
His conclusions:
The best sites – WestportNow and iBrattleboro – have got better over the past year and are closing in on profitability, but only because the key players don't take salaries. It's not clear how scalable either operation is. Neither has the capital yet to expand or even hire advertising staff.YourHub is grassroots journalism only under a Play-Doh definition. It provides five percent news and 95 percent bulking agent consisting of press releases and other handouts. Yet YourHub is expanding nationwide with lightning speed. It's able to do that because it is backed by the considerable wherewithal of Scripps. Backfence's grassroots journalism is several hundred percent better than YourHub's, which puts it somewhere between so-so and mediocre. Backfence, with its investor funding, has been able to expand in three major markets in a little more than a year, and, like YourHub, hire ad staffs to generate revenue.
If this trend continues, and we get more virtual Potemkin Villages, what will happen to grassroots journalism? Will it start looking more like AstroTurf journalism?
Nov 21, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(1)
Discussion
1 comments about 'Grassroots journalism status report'One suggestion I have for these new citizen journalism sites is to make sure you categorize your news into groups. And foster community conversation and interaction around the news. It's one thing to have people write the articles, its another to really develop a community. Social media sites like YouTube and MySpace succeed because of the ability of people to connect. Does anyone of any insights into grassroots newspapers that are fostering community well?
Posted by John Cass at November 25, 2006 12:29 AM
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