Press
Carder is very much the daily voice of the site, but community engagement provides him with a wealth of tips, photos, and even write-ups, along with contributions from more regular writers, who are paid. Carder curates the stories that hit the site's Front Page.
SeattleCrime.com wins best online news presence. 'It's innovative and focused, and the iPhone app is cool'
Best Site-Specialized Geography First place: Justin Carder, CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog
The cost of content is so high, you have to find ways to pinch technology and all the tools as tightly as possible. Plenty of players will be gone because they don't know how to do that. The next generation is going to be very interesting for us.
At the risk of sounding like a sales pitch, I was very impressed with the flexibility and extensibility of the Neighborlogs platform we chose. It met nearly all the criteria listed above. Progressively, I’m learning the platform more and more and finding more slick things it can do. If I had to summarize why it’s a great fit, is because it is purpose-built for the hyperlocal space, whereas WordPress, Drupal, Django and other options are great general-purpose systems but not geared specifically towards hyperlocal sites. Like WordPress and the others, you can’t beat the price (free). Neighborlogs currently charges only a revenue share on the self-serve ads that are purchased through their advertising tool.
I strongly believe it will be upstarts, new players, that build the successful news products of the future. Lean, nimble and creative, they'll be able to pull together all the ingredients listed above and come up with a replacement for the traditional newspaper that's far more interesting, interactive and richer in just about every way.
The early indications are extremely positive, but like any newly emerging business model, it’s impossible to know how it will scale. There’s an element of risk, and that’s why most local media companies have remained on the sidelines.
As news organizations ponder their declining revenues and make their layoff lists, journalists are left to wonder what they ought to do with their careers.
Want to vent? Make a community connection? Or even, dare we say it, make a difference? Neighborhood blogs -- an ever-evolving mix of journaling and journalism -- are an increasingly popular forum for helpful, often constructive discussions of the uber-local sort.
