When a local metro daily is dying, what’s next? How do you rescue the best talent and resources and create a replacement news organization — one that serves the community well while making economic, technological and business sense?
That’s what two new wiki-based collaborative communities are trying to figure out.
The San Francisco Post-Chronicle wiki launched Feb. 25 after news broke about the possibility of San Francisco Chronicle‘s imminent demise. It was founded by Dwell editor Sarah Rich and Wired.com staffer Alexis Madrigal, and currently has about 100 members. People there are brainstorming ideas and fleshing out a distribution model, a coverage plan and a business model.
The home page of this Wiki currently notes, “The beautiful thing about building the first new news org here in the Bay would be that you could draw both on the tremendous traditional newspaper talent and all the bloggers and reporters who’ve worked in the online world. You could also pick the latest in open source tools, so you don’t get locked into a crappy content management system that you also overpaid for. (Instead, you’ll probably just get a crappy content management system that was at least free.)”
Meanwhile, up in Seattle — where the Post-Intelligencer may go online-only this month, reducing its news staff from 150 to 20 — journalist Chuck Taylor has launched the Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer wiki. There, about 40 members are mulling possibilities for content strategy, a business model and technology platform.
I’m skeptical whether Hearst Newspapers, which owns the two troubled papers, would seriously consider the options discussed on these wikis. However, I think it’s likely that an existing news organization or a new one will step up to fill in these news gaps and find these projects very helpful.
Both sites are built using the free wiki/community platform Wetpaint. Anyone can join and participate.
(Thanks to Tidbits contributor Maurreen Skowran for the tip.)
