InOtherNews.us

Online news and information beyond legacy media

Archive for November, 2009

The Ann Arbor Chronicle

Posted by jessdrkn on November 19, 2009

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Focus: “It’s like being there”; local and neighborhood news coverage

Started: September 2008

Staff: launched by publisher Mary Morgan and editor Dave Askins (wife and husband team). Ms. Morgan is a former reporter with the Ann Arbor News, which went from print to mostly online-only model.

Site: annarborchronicle.com

From About

We launched The Ann Arbor Chronicle to fill a void – to create a daily news site that reflects and embraces the energy, oddities, and character of our community. Every day we encounter eccentric, enterprising, or regular people doing the remarkable or even the routine. Ultra-local events within easy arm’s reach – whether it’s a pickup softball game, a client meeting in a coffee shop, a spontaneous political caucus, a school play – that’s the lens through which The Chronicle sees topics like entertainment, economic development, government, education. …

The word of the year for 2007 was locavore, someone who eats food grown in their region, probably by people who live somewhere close by. We’d like to extend this notion to someone who craves news and information grown locally in some sort of metaphorical compost of community interaction. We want these locavores to crave The Chronicle.

Stories: “Library nears deal on newspaper archives”; “More candidates vie for state house, senate”; “Downtown planning process forges ahead”; “Sheriff suggests ways to add deputies in Scio”

Media Mentions: Poynter Q&A with publisher Mary Morgan; “WordPress, Twitter, the Elks Club: 10 new routines at a news start-up” article from Nieman Journalism Lab

Posted in Michigan | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

The Rappahannock Voice

Posted by jessdrkn on November 19, 2009

Location: Rappahannock County, Virginia 

Focus: “One man’s view of the world from Rappahanock County, Virginia”; a “personal blog” by a veteran print newsman. Coverage of municipal issues.

Started: October 2006

Staff: Founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter James P. Gannon, who also was editor of the Des Moines Register and a reporter for The Detroit News. In July 2008, Mr. Gannon entered a content-sharing agreement with local print newsweekly The Rappahannock News. Most news on site generated by Mr. Gannon.

Site: rappvoice.com

From About Us

The Rappahannock Voice was founded in October 2006 by James P. Gannon. He worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for 17 years before becoming the Editor of The Des Moines Register, Iowa’s largest daily newspaper. Under his leadership, The Register won three Pulizer Prizes and was named to Time magazine’s list of the ten best daily newspapers in America. After leaving The Register, Gannon returned to Washington, D.C., where he had worked for The Wall Street Journal, to become Washington Bureau Chief for The Detroit News and to write a national affairs column for the Gannett Co. newspapers.

Sample Posts: “With its roots in India, a winery finds a home in Rappahannock”; “Board of Supervisors’ election sent a ‘don’t rock the boat’ message, but left leadership issue unresolved”; “How savers get punished while big banks that acted irresponsibly get rewarded”

Posted in Virginia | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Nassau News Live

Posted by jessdrkn on November 4, 2009

Location: Nassau County, New York (Long Island)  nassaunewslive

Focus: news and information covering Hempstead, Uniondale, Roosevelt, and Garden City municipalities; heavy multimedia; sections include news, business, politics, sports, features, and religion

Started: February 2009

Staff: student project of Hofstra University School of Communication undergraduate and graduate journalism program led by Assistant Professor Mo Krochmal

Funding: university

Site: nassaunewslive.com

From About Us

Located in Dempster Hall, Nassau News Live starts with the goal of creating a trusted serious news website and fostering new connections between Hofstra and the people living in the surrounding communities while enhancing the education of journalism students with the opportunity to work in a 21st Century news organization.

Students will collaborate to produce and report area news in real time with a combination of pressure-tested live blogging and live video webcasting as well as multimedia interactive news packages, information graphics and digital and still photography.

Sample Stories: “Supporters, Staffers of Nassau County Democratic Party Celebrate, Wallow, and Wait on Election Night”; “Mayor Hall discusses Village of Hempstead’s waning recession”; “Restaurant servers finding a tough economy”; “Unofficial Nassau County election results”; “Nassau County high school football playoffs announced”

Posted in New York | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Digitel

Posted by jessdrkn on November 3, 2009

Location: Charleston, South Carolina  thedigitel

Focus: “context aggregation” and reporting of regional news; info categories include news, politics, arts, features, entertainment, food, business, offbeat, events calendar, newspaper front pages

Started: June 2008

Staff: launched by Ken Hawkins; 3 staff writers, about 20 contributors

Funding: Company is run by Giant Hawk LLC, founded by Mr. Hawkins and Christopher Giganti; first round of venture capital funding came in October 2009 from Palmetto Investments & Exchange Group; advertising accepted

Site: thedigitel.com

From About

There’s plenty of great Charleston content out there, but it’s ever harder to find — Charleston’s TheDigitel is the only place to get linked to the best Charleston content and events.

…

As an unconventional local media portal, we often receive inquires as to just what we — and our aims — are. In a nutshell our aim is: To not re-report, but to act as concierge, connecting folks to the best in local coverage.

There’s plenty of great local content out on the Web, but it’s coming from an ever increasing number of content publishers — TheDigitel is the only place to get linked to the best Charleston content and events.

Our five points

  • Focus on connecting people to the best, most interesting stories about the region, offer a minimum of context, and excerpt a minimum amount, and do so only when absolutley necessary. We do it to be fair to content creators and fair to readers, who shouldn’t have to read something twice.
  • Offer helpful context, analysis, and background as we know it. This is done in large part by avoiding news voice.
  • Offer links to related stories and sources, and offer connections to added resources like maps, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Wikipedia, and so on.
  • Offer a clean, easy-to-use design that acts as a transparent information access tool.
  • Be an open and transparent community portal with an ecosystem that allows for community members to tell what they know.

Sample Stories: links to “Bishop England senior takes on Alex Trebek” a story by local print news Post and Courier; “Andre Bauer running for governor”; “It’s official! Boeing coming to North Charleston” a round-up of articles on the matter linking to Post and Courier and the Seattle Times.

Media Mention: MediaShift: “TheDigitel.com Brings Human Element to News Aggregation” article

Posted in South Carolina | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Broward Bulldog

Posted by jessdrkn on November 2, 2009

Location: Broward County, Florida  browardbulldog

Focus: regional watchdog journalism, “News you can sink your teeth into”; news categories include Broward Courts, Broward Sheriff’s Office and Federal Court

Started: October 2009

Staff: volunteer, to start; 3-person board of directors led by chairman and news editor and reporter Dan Christensen, board member/reporter Buddy Nevins, and board member Julie Kay. All are career journalists. Mr. Christensen was laid off from the Miami Herald this year. There is a 9-person board of advisors

Funding: non-profit 501(c)3 (application in process); will solicit donations from individuals and foundations

Site: browardbulldog.org

From About

Broward Bulldog is an independent, not for profit online-only newspaper created to provide authoritative local reporting in the public interest. We are Florida’s first non-profit regional news site staffed by veteran, professional journalists. Our reporters will provide issue-oriented and investigative coverage of government, politics, the courts, education, business, the environment, health and public safety.

Sample stories: “Anatomy of a Frame-Up”

Media mention: “Cheers to the New Bulldog Blog in Town” article from Broward-Palm Beach New Times

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Red Bank Green

Posted by jessdrkn on November 2, 2009

Location: Red Bank, New Jersey redbankgreen

Focus: hyperlocal and community news for Red Bank and six surrounding towns; sections include Yard Sale, and link to arts and leisure sister site RedBank oRBIT

Started: June 2006

Staff: 4 — Red Bank residents and husband-and-wife team Trish Russoniello and John T. Ward, according to the site. Ms. Russoniello is a graphic artist, Mr. Ward was a newspaper reporter for 20 years. Another person edits Red Bank oRBIT, and there is one tech person. Some articles bylined by a part-time reporter.

Funding: advertising-supported

Site: redbankgreen.com

From About Us

redbankgreen is an independent, advertiser-supported, web-only presentation of news and features about life in Red Bank, New Jersey, and its neighbor towns: Fair Haven, Little Silver, Rumson, Shrewsbury, some of Tinton Falls, and the lower part of Middletown.Launched on June 1, 2006, the site is styled as “a town square for an unsquare town” because it’s a meeting place, like the village green of old. Only this one’s online.

[...]

In creating redbankgreen, Trish & John set out to bring journalistic standards, luscious visuals and fresh—but not gratuitously cynical—perspective to local coverage.

Sample stories: “Bridges Head in Opposite Directions”; “Fair Haven GOP: Focused on Finance”; “Local Foodies Tune into Tunisia”; “Weekend: Not the Usual Haunts” (a preview of Halloween arts and liesure events, from sister site RedBank oRBIT); “Red Bank’s Yard Sale Maven” (profile of local resident, posted on Yard Sale page); and a comprehensive listing of municipal meetings in “Civics 101″ sidebar

Posted in New Jersey | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »