My local newspaper, the Boulder (Colorado) Daily Camera,
just debuted a new feature that’s got a “citizen-journalism” feel to
it. Local businesses are asked to go to the paper’s website and submit
a 15-Second Pitch, which is a description of the company and includes a photo of the product or owners.
The brief business profiles (you get a maximum of 50 words to describe
what your company does or produces) will be selected to be published in
the newspaper’s Business section on Tuesdays through Saturdays.
This seems like a smart idea. While it’s good for the local businesses
— a bit of free publicity — it also helps the newspaper collect data
on area companies. The resulting database could come in handy. Oddly,
the 15-Second Pitch form asks for a phone number and website URL, but
not an e-mail address.
