Posts Tagged ‘washington’
Posted by jessdrkn on January 19, 2010
Location: Seattle 
Focus: “Daily news for Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood”; information categories include Events, Restaurants, Forum, Classified, Coupons, Video, Wire
Started: May 2007
Staff: Kate and Corey Bergman, founders of comunity news network Next Door Media
Funding: advertising; part of Next Door Media community news and advertising network. Next Door Media network of neighborhood sites include MyBallard.com, Phinneywood.com, QueenAnneView.com, MagnoliaVoice.com, and FremontUniverse.com. The group partners with the Seattle Times in a content-sharing deal
Site: myballard.com
From About:
We’re Kate and Cory Bergman… a Scandinavian couple who started MyBallard.com in December of 2007. We both have long resumes in journalism — Kate works at KING 5 News and Cory at msnbc.com — and we noticed Ballard lacked a daily news source and community forum. My Ballard soon became the neighborhood’s most popular news site, even winning a community service award from the Ballard District Council.As My Ballard grew, we started a company called Next Door Media and expanded to nearby neighborhoods: PhinneyWood.com for Phinney Ridge and Greenwood, MagnoliaVoice.com in Magnolia, FremontUniverse.com in Fremont and QueenAnneView.com in Queen Anne. All of our blogs are written by folks who live in the neighborhood.
The biggest surprise has been the enormous role that all of our readers play in helping us cover the neighborhood. Unlike traditional news sites, My Ballard is powered by the community, not us. So if you see something interesting in the neighborhood, please let us know. New store? Road construction? Land use issue? Accident? Lost pet? Drop us a tip at tips@myballard.com.
Sample posts: “Lane closures on Ballard and Fremont bridges”; “Demolition crews to level Sunset Bowl tomorrow”; “Kids bounce to exhaustion at Loyal Heights CC”; “Radio Shack robbed at gunpoint”; “Borrowing changes ahead at library
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: seattle, washington, hyperlocal news, advertising, Next Door Media, Seattle Times collaboration, Ballard | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on January 18, 2010
Location: Seattle 
Focus: “A news blog for Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood”; information categories include Events, Restaurants, Forum, Coupons
Started: September 2008
Staff: 1 editor, Thea Chard, a former journalist
Funding: advertising; part of Next Door Media community news and advertising network. Next Door Media network of neighborhood sites include MyBallard.com, Phinneywood.com, QueenAnneView.com, MagnoliaVoice.com, and FremontUniverse.com. Also see MyGreenLake.com independent news site covering a Seattle neighborhood, but no affiliated with Next Door Media. The group partners in a content-sharing deal with the Seattle Times
From About:
Queen Anne View is a community site dedicated to news and events in the neighborhood. Edited by Thea Chard, a journalist who lives right here in the neighborhood, Queen Anne View is dedicated to covering community stories and promoting neighborhood events often ignored by the struggling mainstream press.
…QueenAnneView.com is part of Next Door Media, an innovative publishing company in North Seattle dedicated to finding a new sustainable, community-powered model of local journalism in the neighborhoods where we live.
Sample stories: “Cat adopt-a-thon at All Best Pet Care today”; “20+ McClure students suspended for cyberbullying” story from KING 5 television station; “Community police academy looking for applicants”; “Queen Anne family in Tanzania share stories of multi-culturalism, holidays in the sun & life abroad”; “Kinnear Park project planning meeting tonight”
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: seattle, washington, hyperlocal news, advertising, Next Door Media, Seattle Times collaboration, Queen Anne View | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on January 18, 2010
Location: Seattle 
Focus: “A news blog for Phinney Ridge and Greenwood neighbhorhoods”; “Whatever you call it, we cover it”; news categories include Events, Food & Drink, Forum
Started: July 2008
Staff: 2 — husband and wife team Dale Steinke, who also works at Seattle’s KING 5 TV station as a web producer, and Doree Armstrong, a freelance writer.
Funding: advertising; part of Next Door Media community news and advertising network. Next Door Media network of neighborhood sites include MyBallard.com, Phinneywood.com, QueenAnneView.com, MagnoliaVoice.com, and FremontUniverse.com. Also see MyGreenLake.com independent news site covering a Seattle neighborhood, but no affiliated with Next Door Media
Site: phinneywood.com
From About:
While most Seattle neighborhoods cling tightly to their own identities, North Seattle’s Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods also celebrate what brings them together.
…Both neighborhoods are experiencing growing pains, from new condominium complexes to long-time stores moving or going out of business due to rising rents. And that means residents are becoming more involved in their communities, wanting to have a say in what this new urban village will look like.
That’s the idea behind PhinneyWood.com. It’s a daily news blog that’s designed to be a community resource — a place where you can learn about the changes in your neighborhood and discuss the issues that are important in Phinney and Greenwood.
Sample stories: “Reduced bus service on MLK day”; “Couth Buzzard Espresso Buono welcomes crowds at grand opening”; “Police searching for armed robbery suspect at 85th Street”; “Is this your bike?” a call for claiming an abandoned bicycle in the neighborhood; “Phinney, Greenwood businesses win Home Street Banker ‘Good Neighbor’ awards
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: seattle, washington, hyperlocal news, advertising, Phinney Ridge, Greenwood, Next Door Media, Seattle Times collaboration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on January 5, 2010
Location: Seattle 
Focus: “A blog for Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood”; original content posted by site founders; links to other sources
Started: May 2009
Staff: Founded by co-editors and Green Lake residents Amy Duncan and Madeleine Carlson. Ms. Duncan, who also is the advertising director, is a former Seattle Public Library librarian, Ms. Carlson used to work for CNET — she’s the site architect.
Funding: advertising supported
Site: mygreenlake.com
From About:
We are two Green Lake residents who felt the need for a neighborhood blog. All the other cool neighborhoods have ‘em so why shouldn’t we? Come here to read about and comment on anything and everything having to do with the Green Lake neighborhood (and sometimes adjacent areas) in Seattle, Washington.
From Ms. Duncan:
My Green Lake is a source of news, observation, community building, and event information for residents, business owners, and all others with an interest in the Seattle neighborhood of Green Lake and its much-loved park. Original content posted by site founders; additional neighborhood information quoted from other neighborhood blogs, SeattlePI.com, SeattleTimes.com, and other local sources.
Sample posts: “A look back at 2009 in Green Lake”; “Organizer of Green Lake Pumpkin Run charged with indecent exposure in relation to West Seattle event”; “Green Lake Community Center to close ten Fridays for Parks and Recreation furlough days”
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: seattle, washington, hyperlocal news, advertising, suburban news, Green Lake | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on October 11, 2009
Location: Seattle 
Focus: municipal, neighbhorhood news in West Seattle neighborhoods, including accidents, crime, local information; links to West Seattle bloggers; calendar listings; traffic cams; public forums; collaborates with Seattle Times on community coverage
Started: 2005 as casual community observation blog; 2007, news concentration, began accepting advertising
Staff: 2-person startup - co-publishers Tracy Record, editor, and Patrick Sand, business development director (“the sales guy”); 6 contributing reporters
Funding: advertising
Site: westseattleblog.com
From About
We started this in late 2005 with the intention of it just being a little place where we could spout our observations about what’s happening in our rapidly changing community. In the early months, it was a lot more personal, written first person, with a lot more opinion. Then something unexpected started to happen — we began to hear from West Seattle residents looking for information they couldn’t find anywhere else, particularly during the December 2006 windstorm and ensuing days of powerlessness, when thousands of us were sitting in cold dark homes without any official information on when our electricity would be restored. That was a turning point for us, toward a focus more on community news and information, updated frequently, and throughout 2007, and now on into 2008, that focus intensifies day by day.
Sample stories: “Update: Car hits pole, SW Barton closed west of Westwood Village”; ”Video: Human, canine volunteers finish up new Westcrest feature”; “Next chance to help library supporters fight more budget cuts”
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: advertising, blog, hyperlocal, neighborhood, newspaper collaborations, seattle, washington | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on October 7, 2009
Location: Seattle 
Focus: “News of the Great Nearby”; “…a daily guide to local and Northwest news, and a forum where writers and citizens with many points of view can report and discuss local news”; non-breaking news, aggregated news, topics, from other online media sources; original content; blogs; regional coverage includes Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, British Columbia, Montana; content categories include arts/living, business, politics, science/environment
Started: April 2007 (as LLC, then converted to non-profit December 2008)
Staff: founded by civic leaders, investors; content generated by ”contract writers, freelancers, prominent figures in the community or in a given field, and normal folks and specialists who have something to report or something to say,” according to the site; more than 40 contributors; paid freelancers; contributor solicitations
Funding: non-profit according to site, 501c3 status with IRS is “pending” as of November 2008 (could be outdated info); started as Crosscut LLC then converted to Crosscut Public Media; from About Us, revenue sources: “annual memberships, donations from individuals, grants and foundation support, and advertising sponsorships. In the future, we expect to produce some events, such as conferences, that will also generate income. This model resembles public broadcast, except there is no government money in the mix.”
Site: crosscut.com
From About Us
Crosscut is a daily guide to local and Northwest news, and a forum where writers and citizens with many points of view can report and discuss local news. News coverage as traditionally practiced by mainstream media outlets coexists with advocacy journalism and opinion. Crosscut is a general-interest news site, with coverage ranging over politics, business, arts and lifestyle, and the world of ideas. It does thoughtful and fresh analysis of the important issues of the day, not routine breaking news.
Sample stories: “King County’s running out of cuts”; “Real radio is found in Bellevue” (posted to a Crosscut blog); “A taste of the next mayor’s diet”; “What would Jane Jacobs do about the viaduct?”; “Seattle schools’ next hot potato: Student assignment plans”; “Are we happier in the West?”; “Obama science goes schizophrenic on salmon restoration”
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: 501(c)3, aggregation, donations, local news, non-profit, original reporting, politics, seattle, state news, the Pacific Northwest, washington | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on June 2, 2009
Location: Seattle
Focus: News and information in Seattle, politics, local happenings, sports, food, arts, DIY (reader submitted) calendar listings
Started: 2009
Writers: PostGlobe is a collaboration of more than a dozen reporters and photographers laid off from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer when that daily paper downsized its staff by 80 percent and went online-only in March 2009; Kery Murikami is head of the group
From About Us page:
After the Seattle P-I stopped publishing and laid off virtually all of its staff, a few of us former P-I journalists — reporters, photographers, copy editors — started this site.
We did this because we believe our city needs more journalists not fewer.
In the beginning we did this as volunteers. We’re still mostly doing this as volunteers. Thanks to your donations, we’ve been able to begin paying a little — but far less than what it will take to get off unemployment.
We’re going to keep doing this as long as we can. But we’re going to need your support.
Funding: donations, advertising
Site: seattlepostglobe.org
Here’s an appeal for funding, from a post by Mr. Murikami on June 1, 2009:
Here we are for another week. We hope you like the look of the new site and some of the stories we’re doing on issues that are not being reported anyplace else.
Today we have a look at Summit K-12, a victim of Seattle Public Schools’ budget cuts. We also have the first of a two-part Q&A with Mayor Greg Nickels.
If you appreciate our efforts to try to add to the amount of journalism in town, please donate so we can keep going. Our goal is to find 1,000 people willing to donate $10-a-month in the next couple of weeks.
Sample stories: “Seattle lawyer restores Michael Pollan book to WSU reading list”; From city council blog coverage: “City council candidates David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw are ready for primetime”; ”Downtown bus terminal to stay open later”; PostGlobe film critic reviews “Up” and “Summer Hours”
Posted in Washington state | Tagged: seattle, washington, hyperlocal news, laid off reporters | Leave a Comment »
