About two months ago I launched an online newspaper called the Cambridge Reporter. The response has been extraordinary with many of the city’s notable writers and columnists submitting opinion pieces and a variety of topics. I’ve also received a fair number of ‘Letters to the Editor’, usually with the complaint that the ‘other guy‘ refused to print them. These letters and opinion articles have generated reasonable conversation about issues that are important to the residents of Cambridge.
All of which is great, except that wasn’t the intent. The idea behind the Reporter was to give the traditional print guys a run for their money by crowd-sourcing the news – real news. The thought was that the 100k+ residents of the city could cover current events more efficiently than a handful of reporters.
Turns out folks want to talk about and debate the issues of the day, not report on them. Which, in retrospect, I should have anticipated. I grossly underestimated the potential for ‘news’ to be discerned from ‘opinion.’ I was actually expecting the opposite.
So, two months in, I’m making some slight changes to the layout to incorporate ‘opinion’ into the main news stream. I’m also re-positioning the Reporter as a place to discuss the news that’s being reported elsewhere. I will, of course, still accept news reports ‘from the field’, but it will not be the focus from now on.
If you haven’t already done so in the last two months or so, I’d appreciate hearing your feedback on the Reporter.
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Tags: Cambridge Reporter, Newspapers, online media
Colin, I know from my experiences with the local papers the last few years that the guest columns and letters are by far the most read. Unfortunately, the print media is limited to the number of replies and you aren’t.
As a writer, and I have talked to some of the others, it’s unique to be able to interact with our readers,
It’s also great to bee able to work on local issues, such as amalgamation, with some of the other columnists who are noted for being social activists.
I like the side benefit that has unexpected arisen…you know who is watching, you have some important people reading your little experiment.
Keep up the good work.