Paying Local News Sites? – NateNe.ws

March 29, 2009

natenews-logoOver at NateNe.ws, Nathan Baker is asking the Nashville’s Technorati for feedback on why they don’t financially support their local news bloggers. He runs down a personal list of sites that should be paid since they fulfill the role of news gatherers. [Yes, I am on that list and he'd be at the top of mine. Since we're both slummin' it, we're trading links instead.]

Via NateNe.ws:

I’ve been immersed in Nashville’s tech scene for a year, and I already know it’s obviously vibrant, talented and welcoming. Nashville’s tech mass is big enough to be dangerous and small enough to be more efficient than larger cities. Therefore we have the unique advantage of creating the innovative tech culture we desire, faster than anyone expected. On the top of my Utopia Nashville list: We should value local online content by supporting a few blogs financially.

I’m sort of interested to hear what others have to say about supporting the people who produce the local news essentially free of charge (*ahem*nashvillest*ahem*).

4 Comments | Journalism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tom Cheredar

NashMash Asks You To Join The Blog Revolution

February 28, 2009

0228-09_nashblogrev


Are You Ready For the Nashville Blog Revolution? You might be if you’ve submitted your blog URL for consideration in social networking mashup Nashmash‘s next phase to organize data from Nashville users.

I’ve spoken to the site’s creator Chris Ennis on a few occasions about integrating blogs into Nashmash. Essentially what I gathered from our conversation was the need to find pieces of news in the community that the Nashville Scene, The Tennessean and all four TV broadcast stations omit by virtue of being too large.

A favorable site for the “blog revolution” might be Nashvillest, which does an excellent job of taking a handful of news items and pushing it out to the community to fill in the news gaps via Twitter.  Also, anything that is specifically geared toward producing original local news would likely be a good contender for the revolution. My own site [tomcheredar.com] is unofficially dedicated to bringing local news about technology but it could just as easily be dedicated to the Nashville rec softball league and still be relevant.

However, simply being a local blogger isn’t the best way to find local news. An example would be Rex Hammock, who produces stellar commentary on technology and a few other subjects. And while some of Rex’s posts are specific to the area, most are not. That doesn’t mean he’s automatically barred from listing his URL. The occasional post that is specific to the local community would be invaluable to any sort of revolution.

So to genuinely prepare for the revolution, do the following: Plug in your URL to Nashmash and then start using tags such as “NashMash” or “LocalNews” to differentiate local content.

1 Comment | Social Media, Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tom Cheredar

Nashville Scene Calls Out Nashvillest Over Titans Comment

February 2, 2009

nashville-scene-logoNashville Scene reporter Caleb Hannan decided to call bullshit on local news and events blog Nashvillest by butchering the lede of an article about Tennessee Titans’ defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth’s contract negotiations.1

Hannan was miffed after reading “Albert Haynesworth is being a brat about his contract extension, because $32 million just isn’t enough” in a post written by Nashvillest Editor Christy Frink via his Google Reader feed, according to comments. He then proceeded to post a rant that was longer than Frink’s entire recap of the morning headlines. (Below…)

Via Nashville Scene

This morning, Nashvillests Christy and Morgan referred to Titans All-Everything defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth as a “brat” for not accepting the team’s initial contract offer. As a restricted free agent, the Titans have exclusive negotiating rights with Haynesworth until February 27th. Thus far they’ve made one offer that wasn’t close to what Haynesworth says he’s looking for; something in the range of the $32 million given last year to Vikings defensive end Jared Allen...

The point he makes is valid (or as valid as possible regarding American professional sports) but why mention Nashvillest at all? In any case, it still does not excuse the failure to identify what exactly Nashvillest is and furthermore “who the hell are Christy and Morgan” as one Scene commenter put it. The lede just sounds like a blatant Oh-snap-no-they-didn’t moment.

While this is sports commentary, the last time I checked Web articles still play by the same rules as do other forms of written journalism — meaning you don’t make assumptions that the readers know anything.

Frink’s often snarky commentary isn’t a shining example of journalistic copy writing either and often assumes too much about the subject, which can be just as dangerous. However, Nashvillest is always  consistent when linking to the source of news rather than the source of drama surrounding it. Case in point: the Scene article didn’t link to The Tennessean but they did give one to the “brat” comment.

Provided things stay civil, it might be a good idea to get the two camps together for lunch to talk shop. But if that’s too much, I’d settle for a single Scene editorial staffer who wanted to actively participate in the Twestival: Nashville event Feb. 12.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Are any Scene reporters on Twitter? Please follow (@TChed or e-mail me if you know of any.)

2 Comments | Flame On, Journalism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tom Cheredar

Meeting Nashvillest.com – Local News Digestion

August 21, 2008

Tuesday I finally got to meet Christy Frink and Morgan Levy, the two brains behind Nashvillest.com. For anyone who may be unfamiliar with the site, it’s basically a digested version of all the daily news and local happenings in and around Nashville.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this site as an alternative to the stale, confusing web sites from other publications. But while big Nashville media may go through years of growing pains before nailing the web, the content they produce is stellar. During our conversation, Christy actually pointed out that after reading every local report on a daily basis, it was often the newspapers, specifically the Tennessean who had the best articles. I want to say it surprised me, but really I can’t. I’ve had a million conversations with other journalists about how changing the medium an organization reports in can be disastrous, but the reporting is usually left in tact.

Content is important, but if you can’t formulate it in such a way that people want to read it then your basically just spinning your tires until the advertising dollars cannot support the weight of the production. Christy and Morgan, as far as I was told, have no formal print newspaper experience. Perhaps that’s what makes them more qualified to cultivate a community of people who care about what’s happening in Nashville. It was interesting to hear Christy talk about fan letters, tips, Photo pools, etc. Why aren’t the big papers using these tools to aid their reporting?

Because the lethargic print era newsrooms don’t know what to do with a community other than report about it. Christy, and Nashvillest, get it right. By taking the News and formulating it for people to understand — to digest — they succeed in leading the community. But they need quality, unbiased reports by dedicated beat writers. By the same token, the newspapers need to expand the scope of their reporting to reach further and dig deeper. And they need sites like Nashvillest to continue digesting it into something the new media kids can understand long enough to click the link and read the rest of the article in its entirety.

I’m expanding this idea in a NewAssignment.net post. I’ll update whenever it’s published.

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Posted by Tom Cheredar

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