What does this gorgeous rare view of snow-capped mountains behind the city's skyline have to do with this post? ... It's San Diego, baby!
San Diegans now have another source for news. The San Diego News Network (SDNN.com) launched a beta version this week, with a staff of over fifty reporters, correspondents and editors and twenty eight “partnering” media organizations.
In an opening communiqué, CEO Neil Senturia promises over 30 sections will be initiated in coming months, encompassing local politics, sports, movies, restaurants and other topics. With former Sign On San Diego honcho Ron James as Publisher/Executive Editor, the SDNN initial offerings included:
**Associated Press Coverage on the Banking Crisis. And three different AP stories about the drug dealers that threw cash out of their vehicle while tooling up I-805 with the law in hot pursuit. Their reliance on the AP for national coverage suggests that it will mirror the generally conservative slant that news organization has exhibited in recent months.
**A feature by Joseph Pena profiling SD City Councilmember Carl Demaio. Political consultant Larry Remer is quoted as calling DeMaio a political “bomb-thrower”. Others interviewed for the piece aren’t willing to pass judgment yet, including Remer’s long-ago consulting partner (and now partisan opponent) Tom Sheppard. Bottom line: meh?
**Reflections on the sale of the Union-Tribune by SDNN deputy editor Eric Yates in which he poses the question: “why would a private equity company, with no prior history of owning a major news publication, suddenly pounce to acquire a daily metro that has had a 40 percent reduction in ad revenue since 2006?”
**A lengthy article on the urban farming by Eric Glass. The most “new media” of all the initial offerings, complete with a video and background story links. While informative and well written, it falls short when it comes to placing the story in the context of the national and local interest in locavorism.
**Coverage of the local prostitution business by Political Editor Hua Quach. The price of oral sex has fallen along with property values, we’re told. And I guarantee that his story will generate the most hits on the site, since anything mentioning s.e.x. on blogs and news websites always generates huge traffic. (Even our mention of the topic will increase the OBRag’s traffic by a significant amount.)
A screenshot displayed on the SDNN website promises that the limited offerings on the beta release will significantly increase in the future.
SDNN appears to understand the collaborative future of web-based news reporting by virtue of their partnerships with other organizations, including radio stations, community newspapers and San Diego Magazine. What remains to be seen is whether they can wield that collaboration into an actual point of view. The issue here is not partisanship or even necessarily agenda. But if you try to be all things to all people, you end up being nothing to nobody.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Well done. And we hope that SDNN’s point of view will become clear over the next few months.
i’ve been searching for a link that puts the “urban farming” thing referenced in the above story into a broader context. any of you who have followed my writing here know that this is a cause that i’m into…..
here it is: http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3328
and jill richardson has an excellent post at daily kos today about the latest bit of misinformation in the nytimes:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/24/712353/-Were-More-Than-a-Bunch-of-Crazy,-Impractical,-Michael-Pollan-Loving-Dreamy-Hippies
Uh – oh. See Pat Flannery’s post here from today (3/26/09) on SDNN’s young journalists fresh out of journalism school accepting the demands of the police chief.
This has been SOP in this City for decades: the police issuing press credentials. That’s why reporters from the original OB Rag never bothered.
How can we buy a copy of the above pic?….would love to have it and also give to my kids. Thank you, Linda