20 Under 40 - 2003 Profile: Chris Muldrow

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2003

When the new media team at Cox Interactive wanted to develop a real estate Web site, it called Chris Muldrow. The wireless project team at NAA also called Muldrow when it was building a site.

Muldrow, editor of Fredericksburg.com, the Web site for The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., (morning, circulation 47,925) has kept his paper on the leading edge of Internet technology. From a real estate site powered by Zope — a free, open-source application — to an Internet site accessible on wireless handheld devices, Muldrow quietly has prodded executives to make the most of the paper's Internet presence, while helping representatives of other papers make the most of their sites, too.

"It means a lot to us to have bigger papers with more resources turn to us," says Muldrow. "It validates what we're doing and gives us incentive to try new things."

Fredericksburg.com was one of the first newspaper sites in the country to display — direct from a Multiple Listing Service — 100 percent of area real estate listings.

The paper rolled out a wireless edition in 2001 as part of the NAA Wireless Pilot Project. Muldrow helped NAA use Zope to create a Local News Gateway that allows users to find wireless editions of their local newspapers.

Associate Publisher Nick Cadwallender calls Muldrow "a very quiet revolutionary."

Muldrow understands that people are change adverse. When the Free Lance-Star instituted online subscription payment by credit card, for instance, Muldrow met with circulation staffers beforehand to explain how the technology would help them.

Education: 1995, B.A., journalism, University of South Carolina Honors College, Columbia.
Career: 1994, copy editing intern, Naples (Fla.) Daily News; 1994-1997, newsletter editor, Internet editor, South Carolina Press Association, Columbia; 1995-97, copy editor and page designer, The State, Columbia, S.C.; 1997-present, page designer, editor of Fredericksburg.com and Star Directory, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.
Personal: Age, 30. Born, Greenville, S.C. Married, wife Tamara.
Diversions: Building a cherry pencil-post bed, rebuilding a ‘67 Mustang for the second time, collecting old Macintosh computers.
Connections: The Free Lance-Star, 605 William St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401, (540) 368-5053, cmuldrow@fredericksburg.com.
Photos by Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star