Mark Briggs
MedCity News growing fast, ready to expand
With a team of six veteran journalists and a powerful board of advisors (including Lauren Rich Fine), MedCity News focuses on medical industry news in Ohio and and Minnesota. The site is only one of three “products” offered, however. MedCity News Service and MedCity News Custom give the company a diversified revenue source, in addition [...]
Pegasus News rolling out in select cities
When Mike Orren started Pegasus News in 2005, he never expected his grass-roots local media site to be acquired. He was just trying to build a meaningful local information source that he would personally find useful. Crazy things happen, though, and Pegasus News has been acquired not once, but twice in its brief history. The [...]
New content providers: Friend, enemy or frenemy?
Some people call them the 5th estate. Others call them content mills or content farms. Whatever you call them, new content providers are a force to be reckoned with. For example, Demand Media is now working with Gannett and Hearst. Yahoo recently purchased Associated Content to bolster its newly aggressive local strategy. And Examiner.com is [...]
News and media on the iPad: A mixed bag so far
It’s only been a matter of weeks, but the iPad era is off to a roaring start. Sales are amazing – a new iPad is sold every three seconds – and development has been brisk, especially for media content. iPad owners are mesmerized by the gadget, some even swearing they will never buy another laptop [...]
Local Media Insider offers practical insight – for a price
Alisa Cromer is a local media entrepreneur covering local media service providers for local media companies. She launched Local Media Insider in March to solve a basic problem she was personally experiencing, which is how so many entrepreneurs get started. “As a publisher, I discovered it was very difficult to find information on technology partners. [...]
iPhone 4 could be powerful multimedia production tool
The ability to report and publish anywhere, anytime got a boost from a likely source today as Apple introduced the iPhone 4. While video calls, HD video and a new OS are grabbing headlines, the new device could be a powerful multimedia production suite all by itself, according to Alfred Hermida, an online journalism pioneer [...]
Newsdesk building peer-to-peer news network
News organizations continue to take new forms and shapes in the digital world. Some new enterprises merely attempt to replicate traditional structures online, but the most exciting new ventures break the mold and try to do something completely different. Newsdesk.org is one of those. Recently, the site was awarded with a prestigious SPJ Sigma Delta [...]
‘Edgy’ Newzglobe mixes business and lifestyle content
While we don’t discuss international media startups often here on LR, even though we know there are interesting things happening outside of our own borders, it’s good to take a look once in a while. Today I’d like to introduce you to Newzglobe.com. Newzglobe launched in Sweden 2005, so it has been around for a [...]
A journalism (r)evolution in Azerbaijan
(Note: this post originally appeared at Journalism 2.0, Mark’s “other” blog.) Azerbaijan has had the world’s fastest growing economy for the past five years. That growth hasn’t extended to the media sector, however, as the spread of news remains limited to a few pro-government newspapers and some underground anti-government publications. During my four days in [...]
ThePortlander goes national, global
Way back in January, it looked like 2010 would shape up to be the Year of the Journalism Startup. A few months later, we’re struggling to keep up with all the developing independent news projects and startup companies. The latest to branch out is called The Daily Globe. It started in Portland less than a [...]
Podcasting for profits: Why isn’t local media playing?
If Leo Leporte can make $1.5 million a year in advertising revenue through podcasting, surely local media companies can find a market large enough to make it worth their while. Yet podcasting has never quite delivered on the potential that many Internet pundits saw 10 years ago. (Remember, Evan Williams and friends were working on [...]
Tippr will battle Groupon, Living Social in 10 cities
The online daily deal is white hot right now. But just how big is the playing field? While Groupon is leading the charge with its fresh round of funding and $1 billion valuation, Seattle-based Tippr has announced plans to compete in at least 10 cities. Other brands such as Living Social and BuyWithMe also compete [...]
Honolulu Civil Beat launches, pay wall in place
A victim of the always-on, always-updating news cycle is the concept of a “fully baked” news product. Since it’s always changing, through updates, comments and reactions, the news is never done. Ostensibly, this makes it more difficult to charge for news, since it’s more a process than a product these days. Pierre Omidyar, founder of [...]
Sticker wars: Facebook enters local business fray with window decals
Mashable has the goods on Facebook’s official entry into the local marketing space. The social networking giant is sending window decals to local businesses, along with a letter and $25 in Facebook ad credits. The decals leverage Facebook’s new Like feature and invite customers of the local establishment to express their “Like” with SMS. “Like [...]
SeattleCrime iPhone app breaking new ground
The sand is flying these days in Seattle, that crowded sandbox for hyperlocal experimentation online. First, there was the announcement of Next Door Media’s partnership with the University of Washington Daily on a new neighborhood news site. Now comes word that an independent iPhone app called SeattleCrime has been downloaded more than 4,000 times. SeattleCrime.com [...]
Newspapers finding success partnering with hyperlocals
Who is your competition? It’s probably been changing a lot over the past few years. In the age of new media, of course, your “enemies” could actually help you (and thus become “frenemies”). That’s the thinking behind the Networked Journalism Project funded by J-Lab in 2009. Last week at the ASNE conference in Washington, D.C., [...]
Cash cow Groupon now valued at more than $1 billion
You’ve probably heard that Groupon raised $135 million at a valuation north of $1 billion over the weekend. Amazing. There’s no technology here, just incredible execution. And a model that any local media company would have been able to adopt. Many are certainly trying a copycat strategy now. Groupon’s founder and CEO Andrew Mason recently [...]
Evolution continued: AllVoices, Demand Media and HelloMetro on the rise
While the digital publishing world was preoccupied with the iPad and Twitter this week, some important developments gave us all a little more evidence of how the landscape for local media continues to evolve. All Voices announced global expansion, Demand Media is reportedly looking at an IPO and HelloMetro has expanded all over the U.S. [...]
