Yesterday morning’s launch article in the Chicago Tribune about the company’s hyperlocal community sites, Triblocal, made me glare and growl at my computer screen. (Maybe I was just tired and grumpy – it was early.)
First, I applaud the company for venturing into this area at all – so many newspaper companies are still hesitant or dismissive of the hyperlocal trend and are reluctant to allow community members to contribute anywhere outside the editorial pages.
But, the first paragraph of the article about the official launch of Triblocal is timid in tone. The long first sentence sounds like the sites are just a small experiment in the Chicago exurbs where success is least likely the harm the core product. (Emphasis below is mine.)
“Taking a tentative step into a brave new world of community-generated journalism, the Chicago Tribune will launch a Web site Thursday designed to allow readers in the far western and southern suburbs to post their own stories, write blogs and otherwise become what the newspaper company is calling ‘citizen contributors.’”
“Tentative”? “Brave new world”? I’m disappointed in you, Trib.
In the Tribune Co.’s defense, leaders there are certainly not alone in being concerned about the user-generated content. According to an Accenture survey released this week, “57 percent of survey respondents 57% of survey respondents cited the proliferation of amateur videos, podcasts, and online social publishing as one of the top three challenges they face today.”
And, the Chicago Tribune article does get more balanced and less fearful as it continues – it’s worth reading the entire thing.
But to turn things a little more positive and hopeful, I thought I’d provide a few case studies, success stories and resources about other companies that have launched sites with “citizen contributors” and are succeeding either financially or in terms of developing a positive place for discussion and audience growth. These are all from NAA: