Started: April 2009
Focus: News and information for the Galion area: “connecting Galion and Galionites with their world.” Integration with social media and networking; launching citizen media component in January 2010; user-generated content; information categories include “News & Views”, “Life in Galion”, “Education & Health”, and “Sports”; some links to content by area media
Staff: Founder/editor Thomas Palmer; 2 regular contributors
Funding: Advertising model launching 2010
Site: galionlive.com
From About:
The goal of GalionLive! is to bring the community together by facilitating the open exchange of news, information and ideas. It is based squarely on the idea of interactivity, in that the entire community, as well as friends of Galion from around the country and the world, are invited to become a part by posting news items, opinions or events — and by sharing photos, videos or audio.
As this site launches, it does so with an iron-clad promise, and that is a commitment to promote communication and conversation that is not dependent on commercial support. This site will feature its own stories and views, each aimed at revealing some aspect of community life. GalionLive! also embraces the concept of “citizen journalism,” in that it also allows registered users to publish any material that meets the following criteria:
Mr. Palmer: GalionLive includes a social networking site at: community.galionlive.com with some 364 registered users; a WordPress site at: www.galionlive.com with regular commentary from readers; a Facebook site at: www.facebook.com/galionlive w ith 599 “fans”; and a Twitter site at: www.twitter.com/galionlive. These sites are integrated to the greatest extent possible to create a single product
Sample stories: “Galion Christmas Eve services” a roundup of church service times; “The Old World comes to Galion”; “Utility rate increases enacted by council”; “It happened in Galion…” a decade retrospective of local events from 2000-2009


