Honolulu Civil Beat officially published its “first edition” yesterday (May 4).
Editor John Temple doesn’t say much about it on his “Temple Talk” blog: “The first edition is just that, a beginning. So much more to do.?”
Civil beat now offers a 99 cent 15-day trial, so there’s no reason not to try it out if you’re so inclined.
Their start has been rocky. Take rail. It’s one of the initial core issues to be discussed on their Honolulu beat, but the comments have been dominated hijacked by Doug Carlson, a well-paid rail public relations consultant for the city, and Keith Rollman, a Hannemann campaign advisor currently listed on the city’s web site as “special advisor” to the director of the Information Technology Department, and Scott Foster, a public relations consultant often representing groups on the other side.
I haven’t prowled around enough to see what’s happening in other discussions.
More smoke than fire, I think.
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Have they done any marketing or tried to drum up attention outside of those who would normally be up to speed on such happenings? Thus far, it seems that only folks who are either news, media or tech junkies are aware of Peer News/Honolulu Civil Beat, but it doesn’t seem that they’ve really tried to draw in other readers, though I may be wrong. Have they advertised this venture anywhere, online or otherwise where “mainstream” eyes would see? Or is that the flaw in my thinking… that this isn’t geared towards mainstream news readers, but rather to the more devoted, hardcore readers of news and public affairs who would be more inclined to pay for a subscription? Still, I would think that the more views they get, the more likely they’ll get the subscriptions they need to sustain themselves.
-r-
I don’t even hear any crickets.
You know what Ian… there is no way we can compete with someone who can toss their money around.
Coincidence Honolulu Advertiser had 500 layoffs on the day this operation opened up???
Just saying you know… it does seem a bit coincidental to me.
You also have to love how you have to pay through paypal… which is owned by eBay.
Akamai @pierre
As much as I want to “Beat” on the Honolulu Civil Beat… I actually wish it the best of success in some sense.
It actually solidifies what I myself have thought for a long time… of course w/out having a billionaire backing most of us bloggers.
The answer is no, they don’t seem to think they need to do any advertising, marketing or PR.
I requested interviews with Pierre or anyone from CivilBeat.com for the CareerChangers.TV show I produce that airs daily on OC16. I also do a blog for the Advertiser that I would have written about the interview on.
No response whatsoever from them. Oh… actually, Temple did reply and suggested I sign up as a subscriber so I could post comments on their site! Yeah… pay to contribute content for them.
The funny thing is they’ve portrayed themselves as offering a “new approach” to journalism. Then they hired old familiar journalists and expect them to do something different?
It also seems like they’re doing their best NOT to be controversial, make waves or actually break stories that aren’t already being covered. It’s nice they want to have “civil” discussions. It’s also boring — no conflict, no drama, no reason to tune in tomorrow.
They already need a serious reboot. And major marketing help. Just my 99 cents worth.
After listening to the Bytemarks program tonight with the Civil Beat guests, I came away with a different impression.
Maybe we’re being Superferried.
Murdoch has said that his newspaper websites will begin charging. Wouldn’t it be cool (profitable) if eBay could offer PayPal as a proven system for managing signups and collections?
Could Civil Beat users be beta testers for that new system? In other words, the journalism might be second and the PayPal PayWall first.
Just a theory. It might explain lack of marketing/PR/exciting articles/need to keep civil.
You may well be on to something here, Larry. Attracting paying Internet customers, and fine-tuning the payment method, is certainly on the minds of many publishers these days.
Thanks for listening and calling into the slow, Larry.
Using PayPal, as they mentioned, means that most users will not be anonymous, thus supposedly raising the level of conversation. As Ian points out, there might not be many outright trolls, but you also still have a platform that can be dominated by people willing to pay (or are paid) to have a message heard.
The other advantage of PayPal? People won’t share their PayPal logins with others. If they had their own authentication system, they’d have the “pass around” problem that PBN and other memberships sites have. This is probably a pretty appealing benefit to other publications considering a paywall.
Ryan, I hadn’t thought about that last point you made. It would be an appealing benefit to other publications.
Breakfast conversation at the Disappeared News household: Will you let me use your PayPal account so I can look at Peer News?
Yes
Which lead back to the question of does each family member have to have a separate paywall, sorry, PayPal account? If I had kids, would I trust a kid with my PayPal account? I don’t think so. Kids typically don’t get credit cards and shouldn’t have PayPal accounts either.
Meanwhile, on the table, is a newspaper which we share.
Oh, and in some senior citizen residences there is a communal computer. Public library computers, for those who must use them, are often placed very close side-by-side as a deliberate strategy, but bad for security. Etc.
So PayPal-controlled access would be appealing as Ryan suggests, for publications, but would seem to severely restrict who will actually get in. The “gated community” can include hired PR people but will likely be deficient in several demographics. So the iPad users will be there but not some of the others I’ve mentioned. The iPad users are natural targets for PayPal.
At this point, I think it’s fair to call it Shrivel Beat.