At 7 p.m. on Saturday night, with one of Seattle’s biggest snowstorms in recent memory underway, NorthWest Cable News, the 24/7 news channel run by Belo (my former employer), is running a gardening show. The broadcast channels are in syndicated programming. The TV and newspaper sites were covering the story, but from a city-wide and regional perspective, updating every few hours. If you wanted to know what’s going on in your neighborhood right now — which streets are closed, which streets are being plowed, where the accidents are — you had only one place to go: your neighborhood blog. In fact, the City of Seattle not only emailed neighborhood news sites frequent updates — and monitored the coverage to watch the storm evolve — but they also prominently linked the blogs from its home page.
Of course, I’m a little biased, because my wife and I run MyBallard.com, where we posted dozens of updates on the storm, from photos to text. Our readers provided more reporting than we did, sending us photos of sideways buses, odd accidents and fallen trees. They “crowdsourced’ the traffic conditions, posting road conditions on their block and reporting back after they managed to drive to work. We were stunned by the community response. But that was nothing compared to the WestSeattleBlog: they posted 24/7, seemingly without sleep, incorporating user photos, video clips, Twitter posts, and a user-updated Google map, generating hundreds of comments, which were nearly entirely user reports. Traffic skyrocketed way beyond previous records.
Capitol Hill Seattle and Central District News‘ community bloggers also tracked the storm (both are powered by their Neighborlogs platform), along with the Rainier Valley Post, PhinneyWood and MagnoliaVoice (those last two are in the MyBallard network.) And there are others, too, dedicated nearly entirely to neighborhood news.
It’s this combination — providing a layer of journalism over a vibrant community of people posting news in their neighborhood — that allows neighborhood news sites to drive increasingly larger audiences with a fraction of the costs a community newspaper requires. Think of them as local cable news channels, updated by both publishers and users around the clock, providing unmatched coverage where it matters most: right in your neighborhood.
No related posts.
So at what point do you quit your day job at MSNBC.com and let the community of Ballard support you entirely?
How much money from pure advertising would it take to make it possible to pay the house payment, the health insurance, the grocery bills and to save some money for the rainy days that we know are already here?
Beyond that rather momentous step, when you sell your blog to someone else as “media property” and let them take over the day to day duties?
Interesting questions aren’t they?
The self congratulatory tone is obvious in your post and it’s ok to feel proud or impressed by the level of commitment but come on Cory… it’s also a little crazy and not based in logic. The West Seattle Blog is really more of an anomaly than evidence of widespread success of a concept.
Did the larger audiences respond to the advertising messages during the snowstorm by getting their chains on and heading to the store? Will the audience feel so happy and connected that three months from now they will still be there and responding to in line text ads?
Will online advertising rates suddenly increase or people’s response patterns to tiny web ads turn around?
The audience is fickle. People will go where they get what they want. THAT is what is being demonstrated. Not widespread ‘proof of concept’ that neighborhood blogs are economically sustainable. SOME will work without question. But they take an inordinate amount of work (as you clearly understand) and not everyone is able to make and sustain that level of effort,
#1,
after reading many of your comments in 2008, it’s my hope that 2009 finds you well and getting the loving hugs you definitely need (click my id for the first volunteer)
happy new year EVERYONE!
Has a neighborhood blog come and gone yet? Is there one that due to sickness, or lack of funds, or just lack of energy or participation that has folded up its tent?
An examination of what both HAS and HAS NOT worked would be fascinating.
BTW..I’m not hostile toward blogs. I think they’re great. I’m just hostile to foolish assertions. Thanks for the hug invited… you might want to eat fewer Park Rangers this year.
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When: February 11th 6pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Queen Anne Library
400 W Garfield St,
Seattle, WA 98119