Online News Websites Funding by National Ads : CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

Jul 27, 2011 02:53 PM

A2Politico

Accountability journalism in Ann Arbor, Mich.

By Erik Shilling

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — [UPDATED September 16, 2011] When the daily Ann Arbor News announced in July 2009 that it would cease publication and be replaced by a two day a week print product with a website, the college town of Ann Arbor, Mich. suddenly became, after 174 years, a city without a daily newspaper. That's when Patricia Lesko, a higher-education book publisher and thirty-year...

Jun 13, 2011 04:27 PM

All Over Albany

Conversational news, events, and culture for the New York capital region

By Dylan DePice

ALBANY, NEW YORK — All Over Albany is a conversation starter. The Albany, N.Y.-based blog covers local news, events, and culture with a mission to provide its readers with fodder for a casual but informed exchange. Editors Mary Darcy and Greg Dahlmann created the site in 2008 after working together at WAMC Northeast Public Radio. At the time, they sensed that there was a...

Feb 13, 2012 04:17 PM

ARLnow.com

Community, crime, and culture news for a D.C. suburb

By Tyler Jones

arlnow.com.png ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — Shortly after noon on Aug. 25, 2010, Dimas Pinson was waiting for the Orange Line train at the Virginia Square Metro station in Arlington, Va. when he heard someone shout, "Get off the tracks!" A man suffering from an epileptic seizure had fallen onto the tracks across the platform and was unresponsive. As a train appeared in the tunnel, Pinson, a retired Marine Corps...

Jun 8, 2011 12:17 PM

Ars Technica

The old guard of tech news, mixing context, the long view, and a sense of humor

By Isaac Olson

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Since its founding in 1998, Ars Technica has grown to become a trusted, go-to source for news, reviews, and information about scientific advancements, technological breakthroughs, video gaming, tech policy, gadgetry, software, hardware, and everything in between. However, Ken Fisher, the site's Massachusetts-based founder and editor-in-chief, claims Ars Technica's success as one of the oldest and largest tech-focused websites isn't...

Jun 6, 2012 01:47 PM

Big World Magazine

A travel webzine that pays its contributors

By Tom Marcinko

big.world.magazine.png NEW YORK, NY — Brooklyn-based editor and publisher Mary D'Ambrosio has taught a graduate level summer travel writing course at New York University for the past decade. A couple of years ago, she noticed something about her students' work: she liked it better than the usual travel magazine fare. "They weren't going to write 'Ten Hot Hotels in Rome,'" she says. "They were going to...

Aug 18, 2011 12:25 PM

Birthplace Magazine

News and reviews for the NYC hip hop scene

By Julia Pyper

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Birthplace Magazine was created with a mission: to highlight the best of New York hip hop. The name comes from New York's status as the musical genre's hometown. Built on a solid foundation of ideas and expertise, the website has gained momentum, but now faces a number of marketing and editorial challenges before it can continue to expand....

Jan 4, 2011 10:35 PM

Bleacher Report

A sports news behemoth where fans do the writing, reporting, and search engine optimization

By Chris Benz

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Since its launch in 2008 after two years of development and beta testing, Bleacher Report has become a major player in online sports media. A unique combination of social networking and sports reporting, the Web site attracts a rapidly growing audience of about sixteen million unique visitors a month, according to the company. It provides Web content to partners like The Los...

May 27, 2011 11:50 AM

Broward Bulldog

Nonprofit investigative journalism for Broward County, Fla.

By Joel Meares

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA — Few states have been hit so hard by the newspaper downturn as Florida. In 2009, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel cut 20 percent of its staff. The same year, McClatchy's Miami Herald cut nearly 200 jobs and stopped distributing its international edition in South America and the Caribbean. Then, in 2011, the paper killed another fifteen jobs and...

Dec 5, 2011 11:54 AM

Brownstoner

Covering (and riding) Brooklyn's real estate wave

By Maura R. O'Connor

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — In 2004, a number of forces inspired Jonathan Butler to launch popular Brooklyn-based website Brownstoner.com. He was working at a hedge fund in Manhattan, a job that was losing its luster for him. A self-described real estate junkie, he had just submerged himself in the city's market for months and finally purchased a brownstone house in a quickly gentrifying...

Oct 25, 2011 11:54 AM

Burnt Orange Report

A political news blog's move from undergraduate pursuit to progressive stalwart

By Tyler Jones

AUSTIN, TEXAS — In 2002, Republicans gained control of the Texas state legislature for the first time in over a century, allowing then-congressman Tom DeLay a chance to push for an unprecedented voter redistricting that would give Texas Republicans a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. With few progressive watchdogs online in the Lone Star State, undergraduate students at the University of Texas stepped...

Mar 24, 2011 11:59 AM

Calbuzz

No-holds-barred political analysis

By Joel Meares

APTOS, CALIFORNIA — At political news and analysis website CalBuzz, newly elected California governor Jerry Brown is known simply as "Krusty." His high-spending Republican opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial election, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is "eMeg." And so, while most Californians still got their earnest doses of 2010 election news from papers like the Los Angeles Times, The...

Feb 1, 2012 04:52 PM

CalCoast News

Investigations and other news for California's Central Coast

By Chasen Marshall

calcoast.news.png SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA — With major newspapers cutting investigative departments around the country, including along the Central Coast of California, Karen Velie and Dan Blackburn were concerned that major stories would go uncovered. In late 2007, the pair of veteran newspaper reporters launched their own online outlet focused on just the type of journalism they felt was lacking--hard news and investigations. Initially, Velie...

Dec 29, 2010 03:47 PM

Capital (New York)

Observer vets hope to "do well by being good"

By Joel Meares

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — When Capital launched in beta in June 2010, it joined an ever-swelling scrum of startups crowding the most covered, and coverable, city on Earth. How did Capital's co-founder Josh Benson, a longtime writer and editor at the New York Observer, hope to break out from the pack? You can find his answer on Capital's About page: "The premise of Capital is...

Apr 23, 2012 12:42 AM

CapitolHillSeattle.com

Hyperlocal news for the city's core of cool

By Patricia Sauthoff

CapitolHillSeatlle.com.png SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Densely populated and filled with restaurants, nightspots, and shops, Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood is one of the city's hubs of cool. Even those who don't live in the area keep tabs on the neighborhood's comings and goings to see what hot spot will arrive next. Not a bad home for a news website. Enter CapitolHillSeattle.com, a hyperlocal community news...

Mar 25, 2011 01:38 PM

CaryCitizen

Proud proponents of upbeat hyperlocal news

By Victoria Rau

Cary.Citizen.png CARY, NORTH CAROLINA — Founder and publisher Hal Goodtree knew he was onto something with CaryCitizen when The New York Times referenced his coverage of the arrest of a local terrorism suspect on his site's third day of existence. Although the town had a local newspaper, The Cary News, its coverage focused on other towns in addition to Cary, and Goodtree felt that he could...

Jan 28, 2012 01:43 PM

CHARLIE Magazine

Perfecting the local online glossy in Charleston, South Carolina

By Chris Benz

charlie.magazine.png CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — "When you start something, what your role ends up being is quite different than what you imagined it to be," says Caroline Nuttall, founder of CHARLIE, a local culture magazine based in Charleston, South Carolina. Originally a publicist, Nuttall founded the website in 2009, and expanded it successfully to a niche market, profitability, and a part-time staff of...

Jun 20, 2012 12:52 PM

Chicago Phoenix

Chicago LGBT media goes digital (and grows up)

By Ian Fullerton

chicago.phoenix.png CHICAGO, IL — Gay media in Chicago has struggled in its search for identity. In recent years, two of the city's most prominent LGBT publications, Gay Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Free Press, shut down after transitioning from the traditional "bar rag" format, with content centered on entertainment and sex culture, to a more issue-related news and features focus. Some observers speculated that revenue problems...

Sep 19, 2011 12:31 PM

CNET

The tech news and reviews pioneer

By Evan MacDonald

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Looking for the latest news on Dell or Hewlett-Packard, or trying to figure out whether to buy yourself an Apple iPad or one of its competitors in the tablet category? If you are, there's a good chance you're going to end up on CNET. CNET is a technology news website that offers tech product reviews, news, price comparisons, free...

May 18, 2011 12:59 PM

Crosscut.com

Robust nonprofit local news coverage for Seattle

By Sara Germano

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — David Brewster couldn't have been the only Seattle citizen concerned about the potential demise of one of his local papers, but back in the mid-aughts, he was ahead of the curve. In 2006, Brewster, a thirty-five-year veteran of the local media landscape and the founder of alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly, was phasing out of his role as director of Town Hall Seattle, a...

Aug 8, 2011 11:49 AM

Deadspin

Gawker Media's sports news success story

By Erik Shilling

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — For Deadspin, the impish sports wing of the Gawker empire, the presence of a pink gorilla at a hotel meeting between Tommy Craggs, a Deadspin senior editor, and John Walsh, ESPN's executive vice president for content, must have felt like a crowning achievement. The site made its name most recently by publishing pictures of...

Mar 28, 2011 08:32 PM

DNAinfo

Hyperlocal news for Manhattan

By Alex Fekula

Dna.info.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Manhattan surely has more media outlets per square foot than just about anywhere else in the world, but DNAinfo has proved that there's still plenty of room on the island for local news. Conceived by Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, the site is a compendium of hyperlocal news for Manhattan's many communities. The site's ten separate verticals provide coverage of neighborhoods...

Jan 5, 2011 08:47 PM

DoD Buzz

A (mostly) one-man show reporting on the Pentagon

By Michael Meyer

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Structurally speaking, DoD Buzz is little more than a personal blog dressed up as a full-on news publication. The remarkable thing is that, were it not for more than three-quarters of the stories on the site having the same byline, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. That's true in terms of volume and quality of content, anyway....

Jul 18, 2011 04:18 PM

E&E Publishing

High-cost subscription coverage of environment and energy policy and markets

By Maura R. O'Connor

e&e_publishing.png WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Launched in 1998, E&E Publishing started with six employees producing high-priced subscription energy policy coverage out of Washington D.C. and has grown into an award-winning online news outlet with an editorial staff of forty-five and bureaus in San Francisco and New York City. Over the years, the company's readership has grown from roughly 1,000 to 40,000, and includes...

Oct 24, 2011 11:00 AM

Eleven Warriors

News and commentary on Ohio State football

By Erik Shilling

PATASKALA, OHIO — Jason Priestas was a lonely Ohio State football fan when he moved to Chicago seven years ago with his wife. He was only a six hour drive from Columbus, but he felt like he was living on the opposite end of the globe. So, in August 2006, he did what many tech-savvy fans do: he started a blog. Five years and several...

Sep 28, 2011 11:48 AM

Engadget

Tech news the AOL way

By Richard Nieva

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Engadget is a one-stop hub for enthusiastic tech consumers, featuring breaking news updates, product reviews, podcasts, multimedia, and more. Light in tone, just edgy enough to amuse but not offend, and often genuinely informative, it's tempting to compare the site to a tech version of Gawker--and, in fact, Engadget was founded in 2004 by Peter Rojas, the tech...

Oct 31, 2011 11:33 AM

Evanston Now

A hyperlocal news site holds its own in a media-saturated Chicago suburb

By Ian Fullerton

evanston.now.png EVANSTON, ILLINOIS — As a native Evanstonian, Bill Smith remembers a time when the small suburban municipality just north of Chicago had only one paper to its name, the weekly Evanston Review. "For the latter half of the century there had been a few start-ups, but those mostly failed," he says. Today, that field has expanded, thanks in part to Smith, who logs around sixty...

May 26, 2011 11:04 AM

FailedMessiah.com

News and investigations from within ultra-orthodox Judaism

By Armin Rosen

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA — A few days after a team of Navy SEALS killed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden, Shmarya Rosenberg, whose website FailedMessiah.com is perhaps the Internet's only English-language news source devoted to news from the insular world of ultra-orthodox Judaism, received a tip from one of his readers in Brooklyn. The reader had e-mailed him a scanned picture from a Yiddish-language...

Jun 20, 2011 04:22 PM

FITSNews

Impolitic South Carolina political news

By Joel Meares

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — In May 2010, Will Folks, the onetime spokesman for South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, sparked a sex scandal as juicy as his former boss's trip to the Appalachian Trail (by way of Buenos Aires). That month, Folks claimed he had had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with State Representative Nikki Haley--then running in a competitive Republican primary for...

Feb 3, 2011 05:14 PM

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

A pioneer bilingual investigative nonprofit

By Justin Yang

MIAMI, FLORIDA — When the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) received a $100,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in September of 2010, it marked the launch of Florida's first nonprofit bilingual online investigative reporting organization. Located at the International Media Center at Florida International University, FCIR is emerging as a leader in investigative news and an innovator...

Mar 24, 2011 03:38 PM

Gapers Block

Chicago's first city-wide news and culture blog

By Armin Rosen

Gapers.Block.png CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Today, Gapers Block is a smartly designed Chicago blog with everything you'd expect to see on a web-specific and geographically focused publication: there's an events calendar, as well as tabs for food, arts, music, and politics. But if Gapers Block looks typical, that's only because of its own influence on the "city blog" genre. When it launched in 2003, Gapers Block...

Jan 3, 2011 01:35 PM

Gawker

Pioneers of Internet snark branch out toward general interest news

By Sean Gandert

NEW YORK, NEW YORK— The rise of Gawker has been well-documented. Founded by Nick Denton in 2003 as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip," the site's urbane tone of bemusement in line with the old Spy, coupled with the Internet's ability to feature near-instant commentary on events, turned the site into a quick, widely imitated success. But the current version of...

Jan 3, 2011 04:31 PM

GigaOM

The site offers predictive technology coverage, and has itself been a leader in earning web revenue

By Sean Gandert

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — What started out as a personal blog that combined former Forbes and Business 2.0 reporter Om Malik's mutual interests in technology and opinionated blogging has become a full-fledged business. Despite running an editorial staff of twelve and working as a "jack of all trades" for the site's business and technology sides, Malik still personally writes on GigaOm nearly every day....

Mar 24, 2011 01:03 PM

Gothamist

A pioneer of the city blog format

By Armin Rosen

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In an over-saturated New York media market, there are few news sources that can claim even a modest percentage of the city's attention. Gothamist's constantly updated coverage of offbeat, interesting, and generally important news stories in New York City lacks the ubiquity of, say, the front page of the New York Post, but it's getting there. The site's New...

Feb 16, 2012 01:09 PM

Grand Prairie Reporter

News by a former USPS employee turned reporter in the Dallas-Fort Worth area

By David Riedel

grand.prairie.reporter.png GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS — "I'm a reporter. I am not a journalist," says Grand Prairie Reporter founder Bob Fitch. "I don't want to degrade the craft of journalism. I can't write and paint a picture with words." Fitch's writing style is utilitarian and not nearly as bad as he claims, but he does try to keep stories on the Reporter at 250 words...

Jan 4, 2011 05:17 PM

Grist

Irreverent online environmental magazine offers in-depth reporting with "secret sauce"

By Brett Norman

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Grist is an irreverent online environmental magazine that aggressively courts young readers, ad dollars, and philanthropic backers. Launched in 1999, the publication could be considered an octogenarian in web years, but maintains the tenor of a cheerful young rebel. To celebrate the nonprofit's tenth anniversary, Grist founder and CEO Chip Giller announced a "Screw Earth Day!" campaign, saying "too many people...

Jun 30, 2011 12:51 PM

Hollywood Elsewhere

One man channeling a "daily stream-of-Hollywood-consciousness"

By Joel Meares

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA — The summer of 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty grim one for curmudgeonly film blogger Jeffrey Wells. Wells, who opines daily on film and the movie industry on his website Hollywood Elsewhere, hates the special effects-packed event flicks that Joe Popcorns, as he calls them, seem to love. And this summer has offered Joe P. more...

Mar 5, 2012 11:56 AM

Homicide Watch

Reinventing the homicide beat for the digital age

By Maura R. O'Connor

homicide.watch.png WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Mico Briscoe. Black. Male. 18. Shot on November 26, 2011. Marcellus J. Darnaby, aka "Boom." Black. Male. 32. Shot on June 15, 2011. Lucki Nancy Pannell. Black. Female. 18. Shot on February 19, 2011. These are just a few of the 152 homicides currently listed on HomicideWatchDC.org. In the coming...

Jan 5, 2011 04:06 PM

IGN

The web's definitive video game press

By Sean Gandert

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — IGN, which began in 1996 as just another video game site in a flood of similar sites with a similar voice, has become one of the behemoths of Internet journalism, with over 13 million unique visitors a month and a staff size rivaling that of many newspapers. Its success is a model for how a Web site can tap a...

Jan 3, 2011 04:54 PM

indieWIRE

Independent film news for fans, filmmakers, and insiders

By Sean Gandert

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — IndieWIRE is a daily news site and online resource that covers all aspects of specialty and independent film. Founded in 1996, the site is known for its dogged coverage of film festivals around the world and its efforts to support the independent filmmaking community itself. The site's multifaceted approach to film coverage has earned it a following among fans...

Mar 11, 2011 11:11 AM

Inner City Press

A one-man show reporting on the United Nations

By Armin Rosen

Inner.City.Press.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Every weekday at noon, a spokesperson for the United Nations briefs the media in the auditorium at the Dag Hammarskjold library, just adjacent to the world body's towering Secretariat building in New York. And every weekday, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press is there, asking about topics that no other member of the press corps will touch. His...

Mar 24, 2011 03:48 PM

Inside the Hall

The go-to site for Hoosier basketball fanatics

By Connor Boals

Inside.The.Hall.png BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA — What began as a couple buddies blogging about their passion for their alma mater has grown into a mecca for fans of Indiana University basketball. Inside the Hall is the perfect web resource for a region known for its devout basketball culture. Started by Alex Bozich, Ryan Corazza, and Eamonn Brennan in 2007 as a hobby, the site soon grew to...

Jan 19, 2012 03:19 PM

Leimert Park Beat

A hyperlocal news site and social network for a neighborhood in Los Angeles

By Chasen Marshall

leimert.park.beat.png LEIMERT PARK, CALIFORNIA — Eddie North-Hager moved to Leimert Park, an 11,000-person neighborhood in Los Angeles, because it was the type of community in which he wanted to raise his family. And yet whenever he read anything about the area in the news, it seemed that he encountered endless versions of the same negative story. "If you would search for things about the neighborhood online,...

Jan 5, 2011 07:50 PM

LiveScience

Science news at light speed

By Brett Norman

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — LiveScience cranks out a high-volume mix of newsy and fun science curios in its efforts to chase after the fickle attentions of Internet wayfarers. Readers are voting approval with their clicks--an impressive three million-plus uniques per month--and the site, with a full-time editorial staff of five, has the relatively rare distinction of being profitable. As part of a...

Nov 7, 2011 03:26 PM

LocallyGrownNews.com

A network of news sites devoted to local food coverage

By Maura R. O'Connor

locallygrownnews.com.png ELON, NORTH CAROLINA — Journalist Michelle Ferrier has been involved in creating online communities for over ten years, and was the editor of MytopiaCafe.com, a now-defunct hyperlocal news offering by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Although MytopiaCafe gained a devoted following of 3,000 users, Ferrier argued in a 2009 piece for Poynter that the site was doomed from the beginning. In retrospect, Ferrier felt...

Jul 13, 2011 12:54 PM

LymeLine

Hyperlocal news for two small Connecticut towns

By Mike Madden

OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT — Founded in 2003 by veteran publisher Jack Turner and now headed by news editor Olwen Logan, LymeLine had the humble beginnings one might expect for a site that covers two towns (Lyme and Old Lyme) with a combined population of fewer than 10,000. When Turner first decided to venture into the world of online journalism, paperless news had yet to...

Apr 2, 2012 03:42 PM

Missouri Journal

Government and political news for the Show Me State

By Tom Marcinko

missouri.journal.png ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Corporations are people? Maybe, but Brian R. Hook is both. As owner and sole staff member of the online-only Missouri Journal, he covers Missouri politics with the Show-Me State's well-known skepticism. As a corporation, he is B. R. Hook.com, a media development and consulting firm. "I will be consulting on 'Here's how to do online media,'" Hook...

Oct 5, 2011 08:03 PM

NewsOne

Original and aggregated national news for black America

By Maura R. O'Connor

NEW YORK, NEW YORK— In July 2011, New York City's beaches and rivers were closed to recreational use for five days, after a fire at a major sewage treatment plant led to millions of gallons of untreated sewage being dumped into the Hudson and Harlem rivers. Most New York news outlets focused on the immediate fallout from the leak at the North River Wastewater Treatment...

Dec 21, 2011 11:23 AM

NMPolitics.net

State politics from southern New Mexico

By Michael Meyer

nmpolitics.net.png LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO — In the spring of 2006, Heath Haussamen was working for the Las Cruces Sun-News in southern New Mexico, an ambitious young reporter covering courts, crime, and local politics amid one of the quieter media markets in the country. Las Cruces is part of New Mexico's second congressional district, which is home to just over 600,000 people living in...

Jan 18, 2012 12:59 PM

NOLA Defender

Edgy arts and culture coverage for a cultural mecca

By Erik Shilling

nola.defender.png NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — After scraping by in New York City for several years as a freelance journalist and screenwriter, in early 2009 Ben Mintz was offered the chance to live in New Orleans for three months to work on a script. Like many before him, he was seduced by the storied city and decided to stay permanently. But Mintz still missed some of the...

May 23, 2011 02:55 PM

Obit Magazine

Making the most of the dead beat

By Lauren Kirchner

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY — Obit, an online magazine launched in 2007 to examine life, death, and the transitions in between, isn't as dark as you might initially think. "What death can mean to the living and what living may have meant to the dead," reads a tagline on its masthead. "Death is only half the story. Obit is about life..." reads another. Far more...

Jul 18, 2011 11:55 AM

paidContent

Covering the business of digital media since 2002

By Joel Meares

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In 2008, when Guardian News & Media bought Rafat Ali's ContentNext Media, Ali wrote that the acquisition marked the "2.0 phase" of his company. It was an aptly webby phrase from the man who six years earlier founded ContentNext's flagship site, paidContent.org, with the aim of obsessively covering the economics of the then just-emerging world...

Mar 1, 2012 10:37 AM

Patch

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

NEW YORK, NEW YORK —In February 2009, South Orange, Maplewood, and Milburn-Short Hills, three small but relatively affluent New Jersey communities, became the first towns to host a local Patch site, launching a network that has since grown to include more than 860 sites in twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. Because of its rapid expansion and the accompanying media scrutiny, Patch has played a central...

Feb 24, 2012 11:29 AM

Patch (California)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

California is a place for experimentation for Patch, as it extends its coverage to two large communities there: the military and their families, and the Latino population. The network's first attempt at a "Patch Military" site is Camp Pendleton Patch; while it is not sponsored by the Marine Corps base, it is run by a former US Marine. Meanwhile, the first three "Patch...

Feb 24, 2012 11:50 AM

Patch (Connecticut)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Annie Wu

patch.connecticut.png Connecticut was the second state to host a Patch site. The network came to the state just after launching in New Jersey and just before expansion into New York. The state's first Patch launched in the summer of 2009 in the southern town of New Canaan. It has since expanded to include 62 sites covering towns across the state. CTWatchdog.com, a...

Feb 24, 2012 12:04 PM

Patch (District of Columbia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.district.of.columbia.png The nation's capital is home to just one Patch. The site covers the ritzy neighborhood of Georgetown, which is home to the university of the same name. The site includes coverage of university news and events, developments on the ever-pressing issues of real estate and traffic, and an ongoing "Best-of" debate about Georgetown's most desirable cocktails. Though Georgetown Patch is alone...

Feb 24, 2012 12:35 PM

Patch (Florida)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.florida.png Patch expanded into Florida in late 2010, and currently has nineteen sites in the state. As an early state in the 2012 GOP primary and a battleground state in the general election, Florida fits nicely with Patch editor-in-chief Brian Farnham's goal (discussed with CJR last year) to involve Patch in 2012 election coverage, and with AOL's goal to cash in on political ad...

Feb 24, 2012 12:47 PM

Patch (Georgia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.georgia.png Patch moved to Georgia in 2010, and has since rolled out forty-three sites in the state. Some sites focus on entire cities, such as Athens or Marietta, while others stick to the Atlanta suburbs--a more common model for Patch sites nationwide. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in...

Feb 24, 2012 12:54 PM

Patch (Illinois)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.illinois.png Illinois has one of the larger collections of Patch sites-fifty-nine in all. Not surprisingly, the sites are most prevalent in the Chicago suburbs. The state also includes two universities contributing to coverage through the "PatchU" program: Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than...

Feb 24, 2012 01:00 PM

Patch (Iowa)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.iowa.png Iowa is currently home to nine Patch sites, with one more launching soon. These nine sites were part of a push to populate Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina with Patches in time for the 2012 Republican primary/caucus season. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District...

Feb 24, 2012 01:06 PM

Patch (Maryland)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.maryland.png A relatively small state geographically, Maryland is home to a huge number of Patch sites. There are currently fifty-two live sites, with more in the works. Home to both Baltimore and D.C. suburbs, the state is a prime spot for Patch's strategy of targeting affluent, technologically savvy communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 01:11 PM

Patch (Massachusetts)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.massachusetts.png Patch brought its business to Massachusetts in early 2010, launching sites in coverage in Marlborough, Sudbury, Wellesley, Newton, Quincy, Belmont, Bedford, Milton, Needham and Concord. Among its competitors at the time were CentralMassNews.com, and a host of print newspapers that also maintained online presences. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched...

Feb 24, 2012 01:17 PM

Patch (Michigan)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.michigan.png Patch expanded into Michigan in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. The network has since launched a total of twenty-nine sites in the Great Lakes State, many in the Detroit suburbs.] Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia....

Feb 24, 2012 01:22 PM

Patch (Minnesota)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.minnesota.png Patch expanded into Minnesota in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-five individual Patch sites in Minnesota. Although sites are concentrated around the Twin Cities, coverage areas vary from urban areas like Southwest Minneapolis to suburbs like Richfield to slightly farther flung towns like Northfield. Read CJR's full...

Feb 24, 2012 01:27 PM

Patch (Missouri)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.missouri.png Patch expanded into Missouri in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-four individual Patch sites in Missouri, and the Missouri School of Journalism contributes to coverage of the state as part of the PatchU program. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 12:14 PM

Patch (New Hampshire)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.new.hampshire.png Patch launched in New Hampshire in June of 2011 in anticipation of the 2012 presidential election primaries. As Arianna Huffington, president of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, remarked, the expansion would put Patch "squarely on the front lines of the presidential campaign." Patch's initial New Hampshire launch consisted of ten communities: Amherst, Bedford, Concord, Exeter, Hampton-North Hampton, Merrimack, Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem, and Windham....

Feb 24, 2012 12:20 PM

Patch (New Jersey)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.new.jersey.png The Patch network's first sites were launched in New Jersey in September of 2009, in the cities of Maplewood, Millburn-Short Hills, and South Orange. Today, Patch operates sites in more than 80 New Jersey communities. New Jersey remains a "petri dish" for Patch to develop business ideas and strategies. In December 2011, Patch merged two sites together after concluding that the...

Feb 24, 2012 12:28 PM

Patch (New York)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.new.york.png After the first three Patch sites launched in suburban New Jersey in 2009, an expansion into New York's Westchester County and Long Island communities wasn't far behind that same year. Today, New York is home to seventy-one Patch sites and counting. In addition to Patch's usual suburban targets, the network has also grown to include individual, geographically small but highly populated neighborhoods within the boroughs...

Feb 24, 2012 12:22 PM

Patch (North Carolina)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.north.carolina.png Patch currently has only one site in North Carolina. It serves the community of active duty soldiers, civilians, and Army families stationed at Fort Bragg, which is located north of Fayetteville. The base spreads across four counties and has a population of around 40,000, according to the 2010 U.S. census. The site launched in June 2011. AOL announced the launch of...

Feb 24, 2012 12:26 PM

Patch (Ohio)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

Patch arrived in Ohio in 2010, launching twenty-four sites. According to a December 2010 story in Crain's Cleveland Business, the first three sites appeared in the Cleveland area, and Jean Dubail, former online editor of Cleveland's Plain Dealer, served as a regional editor during the launch. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 12:33 PM

Patch (Pennsylvania)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.pennsylvania.png In 2010, Patch launched twelve community sites in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, a densely populated area on the eastern edge of the state formerly propped up by the steel and manufacturing industries, and now making the transition into the tech sector. Since then, the Patch network in Pennsylvania has grown extensively, to fifty-nine sites, and includes large clusters of sites in the suburbs of Philadelphia and...

Feb 24, 2012 12:45 PM

Patch (Rhode Island)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.rhode.island.png Patch came to Rhode Island in October 2010, launching in Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth after the Newport Daily News ended free access to its website. A month later, Patch launched in eighteen more communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states...

Feb 24, 2012 12:43 PM

Patch (South Carolina)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.south.carolina.png Patch arrived in South Carolina in June 2011 with an initial launch of four sites serving Charleston-area communities with populations ranging from 15,000 to 100,000 people. There are currently eleven Patch sites in the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia. For more...

Mar 1, 2012 01:29 AM

Patch (Virginia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.virginia.png The Old Dominion is home to thirty-one Patch sites in all, but the sites are not evenly spread out through the state, geographically speaking. The overwhelming majority of Virginia's Patches are located in the fast-growing, affluent and tech-savvy Washington, D.C. suburban neighborhoods in and around Fairfax County, in the northeast tip of the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here....

Feb 24, 2012 12:56 PM

Patch (Washington State)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.washington.png Patch launched in Washington state in October 2010, its first site focusing on University Place in Pierce County, near Tacoma. Patch later rolled out a total of fourteen sites in the tech-savvy state, concentrating on the Tacoma and Seattle areas. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states...

Feb 24, 2012 12:59 PM

Patch (Wisconsin)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.wisconsin.png The Patch network in Wisconsin consists of sixteen sites, all of which are concentrated around Milwaukee with the exception of Hudson Patch, which is more than 300 miles away, near Minneapolis-St. Paul. Fortunately for Patch, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced in late 2011 that it would be putting its website behind a paywall, opening the door for potential traffic...

Dec 29, 2010 04:40 PM

Pitchfork

The prolific online music reviewer/kingmaker

By Sean Gandert

CHICAGO, IL — Founded in 1995 as an Internet alternative to traditional music fanzines, Pitchfork has become a force within the music industry every bit as vital as Rolling Stone or Spin. While somewhat controversial due to its highly opinionated reviews, Pitchfork has a reputation for being able to spot new talent and bring them to a much wider audience. Bands such...

Dec 21, 2011 11:43 AM

Plains Daily

Right-leaning reporting for North Dakota

By Erik Shilling

plains.daily.png FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA — Plains Daily debuted in March 2010, the brain child of North Dakota conservative talk-radio host Scott Hennen, who was previously best known around the state for interviews with former vice president Dick Cheney and presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, among others. Bachmann has been a particularly vocal supporter, calling him the "voice of today's Tea Party patriots,"...

Oct 31, 2011 11:46 AM

Plunderbund

Ohio state politics from a progressive point of view

By Alysia Santo

HAMILTON, OHIO — Like many political news sites, Plunderbund was born out of frustration. Ohio-based writer Eric Vessels had been disengaged from politics for years, but when President Bush was reelected in 2004, his apathy transformed into anger. "I realized I hadn't been an active part of doing anything to make the country go in the direction I wanted it to," says Vessels....

Jan 5, 2011 07:36 PM

Politico

The site that defined the twenty-four-hour news cycle

By Joel Meares

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — On the night of the November 2010 midterms, as election results began trickling in, team Politico held a returns-watching gala at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum. It was the kind of lavish media event usually reserved for legacy media outlets--the Washington City Paper called the party "a throwback to the days when media companies actually made money... There...

Jan 3, 2011 05:17 PM

PopMatters

Pop culture criticism with an academic bent

By Sean Gandert

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Back when the Internet was still the sole purview of academics and nerds, journalist Sarah Zupko, then working in marketing at Tribune Media Services, founded a site catering to those specific audiences. That site was not in fact PopMatters, but it was a progenitor of sorts, providing web links for researchers studying pop culture. During the years that followed, Zupko's interests...

Jul 29, 2011 01:42 AM

PubliCola

Extensive political coverage for Seattle and Washington state

By Alex Fekula

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — [UPDATE: After briefly ceasing operations in May 2012 due to "limited and inconsistent" ad revenue, Publicola was purchased in mid-June 2012 by SagaCity Media, owner of the Seattle Metropolitan magazine and other properties, for an undisclosed sum. The new web publication is called PubliCola at SeattleMet. Popular features like "Morning Fizz," "Afternoon Jolt," and and "ThinkTank" continue to be published,...

May 23, 2011 11:12 AM

Quorum Report

A pioneer in niche online coverage, reporting on Texas politics since 1998

By Connor Boals

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Harvey Kronberg and his team at the Quorum Report are true Internet news frontiersmen. Kronberg, who has been covering Texas politics since 1989, purchased The Quorum Report, then a print-only political newsletter, in 1998, and within a year had turned the Report into an all-web news operation. Although he admits that he had to be convinced to go to the web...

Jan 3, 2011 05:34 PM

Salon

The general interest online magazine has learned to get specific

By Sean Gandert

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Just because Salon is the oldest general interest publication on the Internet doesn't mean that it's been standing still. Founded in 1995 as a web journalism alternative, producing articles as intelligent and well-written as its peers in print, the website's path has been bumpy, but it is still recognizably the same outlet that first appeared over fifteen years ago. The...

Jan 3, 2011 06:03 PM

Slant

Omnivorous pop culture criticism

By Sean Gandert

WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY — Founded in 2001 as an outlet for its editors' frustrations with their day jobs, Slant Magazine began humbly as a two-man online reviewing operation, with Ed Gonzalez writing about film and Sal Cinquemani writing about music. The two covered only a smattering of the biggest releases in each field, but as other writers began volunteering to work for the site,...

Dec 31, 2010 12:24 AM

Slate

The Internet's old guard general interest publication has never slowed down

By Sean Gandert

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — "Slate's overall mission is to create really intelligent, witty, durable web journalism; [that mission] has been more or less the same since 1996," says David Plotz, the site's editor. Slate is perhaps best known as one of the first publications to prove that a high-quality editorial product could exist and thrive online, but it didn't earn that reputation...

Dec 31, 2010 12:51 AM

Small Wars Journal

An information hub and blogging network for some of the biggest names in military thought

By Michael Meyer

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT of COLUMBIA — Although it's right to call Small Wars Journal a niche publication, doing so misrepresents the site's true influence. "Small wars," as the site uses it, is a kind of catch-all term for counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and other pervasive features of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although SWJ may have the narrow readership of a trade or academic journal,...

Feb 15, 2012 11:43 AM

South King Media

A network of six hyperlocals in Washington State

By Maura R. O'Connor

south.king.media.png BURIEN, WASHINGTON — In 2007, Scott Schaefer, an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who worked on shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy and The Arsenio Hall Show, decided to create some comedy websites from his home in King County, Washington. He quickly discovered that getting advertising or creating revenue for comedy sites was extraordinarily difficult. "You're competing at a national level," says Schaefer. "Nothing was...

Jul 21, 2011 12:18 PM

Sports Gab Network

A network of over seventy sports blogs with a special focus on the NFL

By Erik Shilling

sports.gab.network.png MOUNT LAUREL, NEW JERSEY — An increasingly large player in the world of sports fan blogs, the Sports Gab Network has been one of several such news sites in the past couple of years to give many of the traditional online sports news sites a run for their money. The site was founded with just one contributor in 2006, when an NFL blog written...

May 31, 2011 11:48 AM

Street Fight

A news source for the burgeoning hyperlocal industry

By Arvin Temkar

BOULDER, COLORADO — A site named "Street Fight" has to deliver action, and the brand new site dedicated to covering the hyperlocal industry expects to do just that-- though it's probably not the kind of action a teenager who stumbles onto the site after a Google search would expect. Hyperlocal is becoming big business. While the term usually refers to local news, Street Fight...

Jan 5, 2011 06:08 PM

Streetsblog

Public transportation reporters/advocates in NYC, DC, LA, and SF

By Alex Fekula

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Transport-obsessed site Streetsblog--which focuses on everything from bike lines to subway fare hikes--was born, appropriately, in transport-obsessed New York City. Originally launched in 2006 by Aaron Naparstek, it has since branched out to cover transportation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Streetsblog has its origins in the advocacy movement, focusing on local...

Jan 5, 2011 08:10 PM

Talking Points Memo

The pioneer of web-based political journalism

By Lauren Kirchner

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — What began as Josh Marshall's personal blog during the Florida vote recount of November 2000 has since expanded into a profitable multimedia brand of fast-paced political news coverage. The TalkingPointsMemo.com homepage now acts as a conduit to several different frequently-updated news sites and blogs, a poll tracker, and a video channel....

Dec 12, 2011 12:09 PM

TBD

D.C. arts, culture, and events listings from a once-anointed champion of the local web

By Armin Rosen

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — When Washington, DC-area website TBD launched in August of 2010, it was supposed to shake up the entire media landscape. A local news website with the backing of multiple local television stations and a major legacy media brand, it would combine new media aggregation and reporting methods with old media resources. Politico parent company Allbritton had committed five years of...

Dec 30, 2010 02:23 PM

TechCrunch

The tech startup news news startup

By Sean Gandert

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — From the very beginning, TechCrunch was part and parcel with Web 2.0. Founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, the site began as a personal technology blog but rapidly transitioned into a full-scale publication, drawing in millions of page views a month by the end of 2007. Unlike most of his peers, Arrington didn't come from a journalistic background, instead studying...

Apr 27, 2012 01:03 PM

The American Independent News Network

A nonprofit news network refocusing in a bid for national relevance

By Erik Shilling

the.american.independent.news.network.png WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — When the American Independent News Network launched nearly six years ago as the Center for Independent Media, its goals were small. The nonprofit news organization was one of several that launched around the same time, including ProPublica, MinnPost.com, and Voice of San Diego, mostly in response to the ebbing fortunes of newspapers and a...

Jan 4, 2011 04:37 PM

The Awl

NYC-based cultural witticism from two Gawker alumni

By Alex Fekula

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The team at New York City-based The Awl has some advice for anybody waiting on some seed funding to launch their dream startup: don't wait. The Awl launched in early 2009 when founders Choire Sicha, Alex Balk, and David Cho set out to start their own site with little-to-no financing beyond their personal savings. It wasn't much, but "there...

May 26, 2011 01:28 PM

The Beachwood Reporter

A belligerently informed take on Chicago media, sports, and culture

By Armin Rosen

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — In 2006, after fifteen years as a print journalist, including six years as a political reporter with Chicago Magazine, Steve Rhodes took the biggest gamble of his career. Frustrated with what he viewed as the magazine's obliviousness towards the Internet, he quit his job and threw all of his financial and journalistic resources behind his own online magazine, The Beachwood Reporter....

Aug 9, 2011 10:58 AM

The Big Lead

From independent sports blog to corporate flagship

By Erik Shilling

the.big.lead.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The Big Lead first entered the consciousness of the sports media world around 2006, when then-Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock trashed a series of colleagues in a flame-throwing interview that, for a few days at least, lit up the Internet. Less than a year after that the site received a bigger, if more unlikely,...

Mar 24, 2011 04:14 PM

The Dagger

Sharp local reporting for Harford County, Md.

By Alex Fekula

The.Dagger.png BEL AIR, MARYLAND — Harford County, Maryland-based journalist Brian Goodman wanted to start a band. He had a name picked out: The Dagger. After plans for the band fizzled, Goodman decided to take the name and start a local news blog instead. The journalistic ensemble known as The Dagger officially debuted in April of 2007, and has since evolved into a popular alternative news resource...

Jan 17, 2011 11:46 AM

The Daily Caller

Tucker Carlson and co.'s political reporting startup

By Michael Meyer

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — "My politics are relatively well known," conservative media personality Tucker Carlson told CJR in February of 2010, not long after he and former Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel launched political news site The Daily Caller. "But this site is not a pure distillation of my politics. My views are not interesting enough to sustain the company we're...

Oct 24, 2011 11:24 AM

The Faster Times

Creative revenue earning from an online publication/writers' collective

By Brett Norman

the.faster.times.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — For a twenty-eight dollar "membership" in The Faster Times, you can get a critique of your dating profile by the publication's sex and dating expert, Meghan Pleticha. For $500, you can get a one-hour fencing lesson from Ken Mondschein, a research scholar at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, who writes about the politics...

Oct 26, 2011 11:36 PM

The Florida Current

Exhaustive statehouse reporting and research in the Sunshine State

By Paige Rentz

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida statehouse politics has found a new home in The Florida Current, a news site that aims to provide concise, neutral, and accurate reporting on politics and policy in the Sunshine State. Originally billed as The Florida Tribune, the site began as an arm of LobbyTools, a Tallahasse-based legislation tracking and data curation service for...

Mar 24, 2011 11:35 AM

The Florida Independent (Defunct)

Legislative watchdogging and more

By Chris Benz

The.Florida.Independent.png TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — [UPDATE:The Florida Independent was closed by its parent, the American Independent News Network, on April 27, 2011, just before the site's second birthday. CJR's detailed profile of AINN's refocusing on a national audience after shutting down all but one of its state sites can be found here.] Launched in May 2010 with a $352,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, <a href="http://floridaindependent.com/"...

Jan 5, 2011 08:23 PM

The Huffington Post

The online news behemoth grows up

By Michael Meyer

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — As of the writing of this profile, the "BIG NEWS" header at the top of The Huffington Post's homepage reads: "Unemployment, Katie Holmes, Natalie Portman, Health, Lindsay Lohan, Smarter Ideas, More..." It's the mix of topics that might be floating around the head of a conscientious, politically astute fifteen year old--but given that HuffPost only recently entered the second...

Oct 24, 2011 04:57 PM

The Ithaca Independent

One man among the gorges

By Daniel Luzer

ITHACA, NEW YORK — The major daily paper of Ithaca, N.Y., the Ithaca Journal, is, like eighty-two other daily papers in America, part of the Gannett chain. Over the last decade or so, Ithaca resident Ed Sutherland, who writes business news for computer blog Cult of Mac, started to notice a change in the paper. Over time, much of the content in the...

Jan 19, 2011 04:42 PM

The Locust Fork News-Journal

A one-man purveyor of mobile journalism performance art

By Michael Meyer

locust.fork.news-journal.png BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — The Locust Fork News-Journal, like many websites, is wholly devoted to the quirks, whims, emotions, and talents of its founder--in this case, a former newspaper reporter and self-proclaimed champion of the "independent watchdog Web press" named Glynn Wilson. Unlike most sites (including many owned by the "corporate media" Wilson rails against) the News-Journal is stable and profitable--a testament to what can...

Jun 30, 2011 11:50 AM

The Los Angeles Review of Books

A book review section for a post-print age

By Lauren Kirchner

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Tom Lutz, nonfiction author and creative writing professor, offers a startling statistic about the book business on his new website: "twenty times as many titles are published each year than were in 1980, and we have one twentieth of the serious book reviews." The Los Angeles Review of Books, an online magazine launched by Lutz in April 2011, is his...

Oct 21, 2011 10:57 AM

The Manomet Current

Hyperlocal news for two Plymouth, Mass. neighborhoods

By Alex Fekula

manomet.current.png PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS — In addition to being the landing point of the Mayflower, the birthplace of Thanksgiving, and the home of a notorious rock, Plymouth, Mass. also houses the seaside village of Manomet, a neighborhood within Plymouth proper. Online news source The Manomet Current hopes to provide hyperlocal news for both Manomet and neighboring Pinehills. The site's stated goal is to "tell...

Oct 31, 2011 02:50 PM

The Natomas Buzz

Hyperlocal news for a Sacramento, Calif. community

By Maura R. O'Connor

the.natomas.buzz.png SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — In June of 2008, journalist Brandy Tuzon Boyd was scrolling through daily crime reports in Natomas, a community in northwest Sacramento, when she noticed something alarming--a spate of home invasions in which residents were being robbed in their garages. Tuzon Boyd reported the trend on her then-fledgling website The Natomas Buzz. "Is anyone else noticing this happening almost every other...

Dec 31, 2010 01:06 AM

The Root

A strong online presence for the African American press

By Dohini Patel

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT of COLUMBIA — Founded in 2008, The Root continues a long tradition of black-perspective journalism in America, reporting on social, cultural, and political issues through an African American lens. With the Quincy Jones-founded Vibe folding in 2009 before its rebirth as a quarterly, and Essence and others toughing it out in a shrinking magazine market, there's been a...

Oct 12, 2011 11:51 PM

The Saginaw Valley Journal

A for-profit campus news source

By Alex Fekula

UNIVERSITY CENTER, MICHIGAN — Pinned to the bulletin board at the editorial offices of the Saginaw Valley State University-based Saginaw Valley Journal is an article entitled "Leggings Aren't Pants!" An opinion piece featured in a rival campus-run newspaper, the article acts as a constant reminder for the Journal's editorial staff of "what not to do." Looking to provide the SVSU community with a...

Sep 15, 2011 11:13 AM

The San Francisco Appeal

An online newspaper for the Bay Area

By Julia Pyper

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Eve Batey, editor and publisher of The San Francisco Appeal, thinks it's important to stick to the journalism basics. She says that a clean layout, good writing, and quality reporting are what drive a successful publication. SF Appeal has dubbed itself "San Francisco's Online Newspaper." The content is almost entirely locally focused--San Francisco news, culture and entertainment, food, weather,...

Mar 2, 2012 10:00 AM

The Sanatoga Post

A one-man news network in Pennsylvania

By Erik Shilling

the.sanatoga.post.png SANATOGA, PENNSYLVANIA — When Joseph Zlomek decided to go back into the news business in August 2008 and launch The Sanatoga Post, he drew inspiration from nostalgia. Zlomek had fond, decades-old memories of the Eagle Bulletin, a small weekly based in Fayetteville, N.Y., a suburb of Syracuse, near where he was raised. The paper, Zlomek says, was regularly the hottest read among townsfolk....

Jun 1, 2011 12:33 PM

Theme Park Insider

News and reviews for theme park enthusiasts

By Alex Fekula

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA — Since Disneyland opened in 1955, Americans and pleasure-seekers the world over have flocked to the variety of theme parks that now occupy mega-park epicenters like Orlando, Florida. and Anaheim, California. With options ranging from Universal Studios to Disney World to Busch Gardens, the vacation planning process can at times seem daunting. Pasadena-based Theme Park Insider aims to take the edge off...

May 6, 2011 11:27 AM

ThePortlander

Portland-centric news with a casual flair

By Alex Fekula

PORTLAND, OREGON — When the news broke that the former model and millionaire's widow Anna Nicole Smith had died, the story seemed to capture the interest of virtually every local TV station, major news network, and newspaper. But all Jeff Martens of Portland, Ore. wanted to know was the score of the previous night's high school basketball game. Frustrated by Smith's death dominating the seeming entirety...

Nov 1, 2012 10:24 AM

TRVL

A free iPad travel magazine

By Hiten Samtani

BUSSUM, NETHERLANDS — Two Dutch guys met at a party in Amsterdam. A month later, they had a magazine. Jochem Wijnands, who used to run an online photo agency, and Michel Elings, a technology consultant, found they had a shared passion for travel. They put their heads and networks together to create TRVL, an iPad-only magazine that is the highest rated magazine app...

Jul 25, 2011 04:00 PM

Universal Hub

A wicked smart Boston hyperlocal

By Connor Boals

universal.hub.png BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — What started as a simple online directory of businesses, restaurants, and other establishments serving Boston has grown into a full-blown hub of Beantown information. After a layoff prompted him to take his side project full-time, Adam Gaffin set about building Universal Hub into a hyperlocal news hub with an original Boston twist. If you want the day's biggest stories, stick...

Jan 5, 2012 11:22 AM

Urban Milwaukee

Reporting and advocacy on urban issues in the Cream City

By Paige Rentz

urban.milwaukee.png MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN — After merging two local blogs to launch a news site several years ago, web developers Jeramey Jannene and Dave Reid have a strong presence in downtown Milwaukee, serving up local urban news on their combined effort, Urban Milwaukee. Jannene and Reid do not shy away from writing with a very defined perspective. "We're not simply reporting; there's a level of...

Oct 26, 2011 06:13 PM

Washington Independent Review of Books

Serious-minded reviews of books across the literary spectrum

By Daniel Luzer

washington.independent.review.of.books.png WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — When newspapers across the country have to cut costs, their book sections inevitably end up on the chopping block. David O. Stewart, president of the Freedom to Write Fund, which is dedicated to education and public advocacy on behalf of writers, says that he and the other members of the Fund became concerned about shrinking book review sections and the...

Oct 31, 2011 10:00 AM

West Orlando News Online

Left-of-center community news for Orlando, Fla.

By Paige Rentz

west.orlando.news.online.png ORLANDO, FLORIDA — For Keith Longmore, it's a point of pride that the Tea Party has targeted West Orlando News Online, the left-of-center local news site he publishes in Orange County, Florida, for a service it provides to locals hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. According to Longmore, posting information and links to help readers apply for government assistance programs is all in...

Oct 31, 2011 02:26 PM

YubaNet

Online news stretching the Sierras

By Tyler Jones

NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA — "The legacy media don't see this area as a market," says Pascale Fusshoeller, editor and co-founder of YubaNet in Nevada City, California. When looking at a map of the Sierra Nevada, one can understand why. The Range of Light, as John Muir described it, stretches 400 sparsely populated miles along California's Central Valley, containing the...