Online Journalism News

Q&A with Mark Briggs, Newsgarden: 'It's a weekly newspaper without the weekly and the paper'

"I spent the last nine years running newspaper websites and it always drove me crazy that, as a user of my own web site, I had to go to so many different sections to find information that was relevant to where I lived," Mark Briggs, chief executive of Newsgarden, tells Journalism.co.uk.

Despite working for 'a news organization that prided itself on being more local than any other information source online', as a user Briggs became frustrated with the number of sections of the site he'd have to check to find out what was happening 'in his neighbourhood'.

As such, Briggs left his job as assistant managing editor [interactive] at the News Tribune newspaper in Tacoma, Washington, to work on technology as CEO of Serra Media, finding ways that could help websites deliver specific, hyperlocal content - enter Newsgarden, launched publicly in February 2008.

A year into the project and having acquired a new partner, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Briggs updated Journalism.co.uk with a progress report.

How does Newsgarden work for publishers and for news consumers?
[MB] We call Newsgarden 'social mapping for news'. But that means nothing to news consumers. To them, it is a website that tells you what's happening in your neighborhood. The ultimate goal being 'one-stop shopping' so an audience can find out what's going on around them - right now. And the news and information can come from many sources, even you or your neighbour.

What it means to publishers is here's a platform to build hyperlocal publications in each of the hyperlocal communities you want to cover, in a way that is networked together. It's like starting a weekly newspaper operation in these neighborhoods without the 'weekly' or the 'paper', but with the collaboration of the community. And it's not just content, it can produce revenue, too.

What differentiates it from other hyperlocal news projects?
Newsgarden is a platform, not a website. It's a framework with a set of tools that a publisher can use however they want. We are talking with newspapers, TV stations, universities and hyperlocal news sites who each have different visions for how Newsgarden will be most effective in their particular market. And that's what we wanted. It's just a publishing platform that allows you to do some cool things. How you implement it as a publisher is entirely up to you. We also have a self-serve, geotargeted advertising network that is interesting to both the small news start-ups and the big media houses. It's hyperlocal advertising that's scaleable.

How is it being used by news media?
Our most recent partner, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, is using it to power a new project they are calling Block Talk. It will feature a combination of links to Gazette news stories, posts by Gazette journalists and contributions from the community. All the content will be organized geographically so users can see what's happening in their neighborhood or share information with their neighbors that no-one else would find interesting.

Other news sites are using it to simply map their news and, while the user collaboration option is available, it's not something they're pushing. There are some other visions for it, too, where the clay is still being moulded and isn't dry yet.

Is Newsgarden aimed at independent news sites or for syndicating to larger organisations?
Both - and more. We are currently licensing the software as a service to a handful of news companies and are talking with several more. We are also working with independent news sites, non-profits and university journalism programs, who are getting more aggressive about serving as incubators for innovations in journalism.

How do you see it developing? Are their additional features you plan to develop?
Tons. I'm fortunate to have some super smart people on my team and they are always coming up with interesting new ideas for features to build into Newsgarden, or spin out into separate products.

For example, we are currently developing a separate platform for a social shopping site called TownLuxe (my wife's influence on the company) and another for a local/regional travel and visitors' guide site called WhereToGo that will immediately tell you where to find the best fish tacos or cheeseburgers in town - without user reviews.

And mobile? Everything we're doing is pointed toward mobile applications and the age of ubiquitous location-aware devices (which is practically here, by the way). We've got an iPhone app that is almost completed that will serve information and advertising from Newsgarden to you based on where you are. It will allow you to upload information to Newsgarden based on where you are, so if there's a car fire nearby, snap a photo and, in a couple touches, upload it to your local news website for others to see.

Do you believe the future of news lies in hyperlocal or is this just part of the pie?
It can really only be part of the pie. So much important and interesting stuff happens outside my neighborhood - national politics, business, technology, sports - but I have a million places to find that information. I don't have a place to find out what's going on around me, so we built Newsgarden.

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hyperlocal | mark briggs | newsgarden |

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