Social News Fail: Great local journalism goes unnoticed on major social news sites
thecitizenspeaks.windycitizen.com
thecitizenspeaks.windycitizen.com
As a recent refugee from Reddit, I've seen far too much of the tiresome practice of using "fail" to mean "let's belittle & humiliate someone". So I was a bit worried when I saw this on the front page of HN. It's nice to see the word used to mean "this didn't work well; how can we do better?".
I am a huge Reddit/Digg fan (though the new Digg bar is indefensible.) I think what those two sites have done is unleashed a generation of writers and publishers, confident that they now have a tool to find an audience when they make something really great.
But for those writers who want to dig into local issues, there is no tool like that. When I came to Chicago for j-school and was pumping out stories every day, I had no way to put them in front of people. And my stuff died a quick death on Digg because it just didn't belong.
That's not a bad thing, it's just how it is. So I've spent the last year creating a solution in Chicago. This post was written to celebrate a bit of a milestone and also to point out to local publishers that they should stop chasing the fools gold of Digg's front page and come join up with us. :)
Has anyone else tried to hire sales people via Craiglist? Any success?
Media Kit? check.
Spreadsheet of leads? check
Salesperson who knows what they're selling and is pumped about it? check
Time to start hitting the phones...