Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

This is Now Public: NowPublic, a seemingly “citizen journalism” network, is following in (not so) good Google and Facebook traditions of world domination hype.

While Google has laid claim to all the world’s information and Facebook believes it will be the world’s social graph, NowPublic is feeling giddy thanks to a new $10.6 million VC infusion and declaring its intention to be the biggest “news” agency in the world.:

Merrill Brown, chairman: This round of financing will enable NowPublic to further its goal of being the largest news network in the world with more people on the ground in the right places and at the right times to report the news.

Does it have a shot? NO! Why not? Because NowPublic is NOT acting predominately as a network for original news, in other words a “news agency.”

What IS a news agency? Encyclopedia Britannica: “organization that gathers, writes and distributes news from around a nation or the world to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies…”

NowPublic is operating in the exact oppostite fashion, however. NowPublic “contributors” are not generally posting original, primary-sourced “news”: NowPublic “news” stories appear to be predominately of the derivative blogging style ilk, merely “borrowed” cut and pastes of ”news” stories originally reported by real, professional news reporting organizations and/or other blogs.

Moreover, NowPublic’s public defintion of how it defines “news” is in contradiction with the “news” stories it actually hosts and promotes at NowPublic. The NowPublic website on its “news values”:

We have a very simple definition of news that allows our members to be assured that what they read is actually newsworthy: “News is new information on current events.” The news you post should be “news in this commonly accepted sense. It will be one of three types:

1) Original, relevant information about a current event that you have actually witnessesed, documented or reserached.

2) New information yo have collected, aranged and contextualized about a current event.

3) Commentary, advice or analysis directly related to a current event.

In reality, however, NowPublic is functioning as a Digg like site, aggregating crowd-pleasing soft news stories taken from other Websites.

The current NowPublic feature “news” story is about a YouTube video, taken verbatim from a story reported by Cebu Daily News and published at Inquirer.net:

Cebu Daily News First posted 05:34 PM 07/27/2007  CEBU, Philippines—A video of provincial inmates dancing to the tune of Michael Jackson’s 80s hit “Thriller” may end up in the Guinness Book of Records.

Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia yesterday said the video has a shot at taking the record for the most number of individuals dancing to “Thriller” at the same time and in the same location. He said he was informed by a Guinness Record title holder that the current record stands only at 65 dancers.

The NowPublic “crowd powered” version, dated July 29, 2007:

A video showing over 1500 prisoners of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center  in the Philippines performing to Michael Jackson’s smash hit Thriller has been viewed over 2,500,000 times on You Tube.

Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia yesterday said the video has a shot at taking the record for the most number of individuals dancing to “Thriller” at the same time and in the same location. He said he was informed by a Guinness Record title holder that the current record stands only at 65 dancers.

The NowPublic current lead story–a two-day old regurgitated ’story” about a sensational YouTube video–is not in the spirit of NowPublic’s own definition of what is “newsworthy.”

NowPublic touts it is the “largest news organization of its kind…a participatory news network that mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world.”

What is NowPublic touting now though as “The Best Crowd Powered News” on its home page?

“No trick plays here”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of an Associated Press reported story published at Yahoo Sports.

“You can’t have a phone because you are DEAD”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of a story reported and published by Northhampton Chronicle.

“The lucky escape”: What is it? Apparently a real, honest to goodness “citizen journalist” news contribution; A photo of a jockey on a horse purportedly saying “get off the fucking racetrack” to someone.

“Mayor Gets Happy”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of a story reported and published by The Vancouver Observer.

NowPublic founder & CEO Leaonard Brody says his model of citizen journalism is “increasingly being embraced by major media.”

Really? It is mostly the other way around; NowPublic is embracing the original content of major media, by piggybacking on the professional work done by professional news organizations, amazingly cost free to NowPublic!

What about NowPublic Hurricane Katrina and Virginia Tech contributions, NowPublic will retort. What about them? Man on the street “eye-views” of one-off mass public blockbuster news events are now easily obtained by professional news organizations as well.

NowPublic does not have a defensible “breaking news” value proposition and its daily “news” operation follows in the not so glorious derivative tradtion of AOL’s Weblogs.

Traditional news organizations have much to fear from innovative upstart Web-based news sites; NowPublic is not one of them.

ALSO: If ‘We the Media’ Poaches Content, Who Pays for News Production? and How Pegasus News Fuels Local Media Business Model for Fisher Communications: INTERVIEW

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Mike Orren began the New Year at his Pegasus News blog by proudly declaring “we aren’t hyperlocal” and laying claim to a “panlocal” moniker instead. 

Orren even posted a New Year’s resolution for Pegasus, the online “local news and information service” he founded and leads: “In theory, panlocal should be a big business. We’ll be doing our damnedest to prove that in practice in the New Year.”

Orren did prove panlocal’s “big business” potential this year, to Fisher Communications; One week ago, the Seattle-based, NASDAQ traded, tradtional media company–owner/operator of 19 television stations and eight radio stations in the Pacific Northwest–announced it acquired Pegasus to “expand its online local news strategy.”

Why is Fisher embarking on a new online media trajectory? Why did Fisher choose Dallas-based Pegasus to help fuel its new local news focus?

I spoke today with Rob Dunlop, SVP Emerging Media, Fisher Communications, to find out.

Dunlop leads the Fisher Interactive Network, of which Pegasus News is currently the key component.

Collen Brown, Fisher CEO, announced the company’s online AND local intentions to shareholders earlier in the year:

Launching new Internet businesses, repositioning and realigning our company for success and growth in the new media world. As consumers and advertisers shift their behavior in this digitally driven enviornment, it is expected that we become more innovative, responsive and competively daring, to better serve our customers’ needs and drive our future as a local media company.

Dunlop told me that the panlocal focus of Pegasus supports Fisher’s goal of reaching the local consumer that typically wants a view of “the marketplace as a whole” and not simply information on “my neighborhood only.”

The hyperlocal, user-focused approach employed by Backfence is too narrow to drive sustainable community involvement and of limited appeal to local advertisers, Dunlop indicated.

The broader interest of the Pegasus local media model is multi-faceted, Dunlop told me:

1) User Generated Content friendly, but not just User Generated Content,

2) Aggregation of news from Professional Content Partners,

3) Original editorial contributions, wth a point of view,

4) “The Daily You” customization of content presentation for readers…

What is the Pegasus News “secret sauce” then? The pooling and personalized filtering of a myriad of local, national and world information data sources that speak to the affinities of individual users within a broader, more universal context, Dunlop indicated.

Does Fisher have a “secret sauce” to monetize the Pegasus local news strategy? I asked Dunlop just that. After all, in announcing the sale of his company to Fisher, Orren acknowledged Pegasus “ran out of cash” months ago.

Dunlop told me Fisher envisages a three-prong business model for the monetization of Pegasus:

1) Targeted, local merchant advertising leveraging the local media sales know-how and clientele of Fisher’s TV and radio stations,

2) Traditional database marketing leveraging Pegasus’ relationships with its registered users,

3) Licensing of the new Fisher-Pegasus panlocal Internet media model to offer prosepctive partners “speed to market” entry into the online local news business.

Orren welcomed Fisher by saying Pegasus looks forward to “reaching more cities, towns and neighborhoods over the coming year.”

Will Fisher’s home base of Seattle be the first Pegasus roll-out city? Not necesarily, Dunlop told me. For now, Dunlop plans on being a “commuter” to Pegasus’ home base, Dallas. What’s more, Fisher CEO Brown is a former Dallas resident.

Do all the Fisher Communications connections with Dallas mean a new Texas television or radio property is in the works for the heretofore Pacific Nortrhwest focused Fisher? I asked Dunlop if the Fisher geographical diversification via online local media would lead to future geographical expansion in its traditional media operations.

While not getting state specific, Dunlop concurred that geographic expansion via radio and/or tv properties would not be inconsistent with the Fisher 2006 Strategic Plan targeting a diversification of its “geographic and network portfolio.”

Dunlop did confirm to me that but one week out of the acquisition gate, Fisher is already fielding expressions of interest in the Pegasus local media model from prospective partners; In other words, the licensing component of the Fisher-Pegasus business model appears to be bearing prospective fruits.

ALSO: Backfence.com and Google: Money Can’t Buy Local Love and Local Matters: Backfence Farewell NO Real Back Story

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN