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I Want To Start An Onlin…

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Hyperlocal Journalism Bu…

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Mobile Strategy

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Eric Wotila updated their profile photo

February 16

Eric Wotila commented on Amy Senk's blog post 'Unnamed Sources -- An Ethical Question'

I like your approach for the most part, though I have a couple thoughts. When I interview someone, I always ask their name... though there have been a few occasions where they've requested not to be named on-air -- in which case, I always agree to…

January 9

Eric Wotila and Amy Senk are now friends

January 9

Eric Wotila left a comment for Amy Senk

January 9

Eric Wotila left a comment for Eric Wotila

January 7

Eric Wotila was featured

Congratulate them!

January 7

RJI Collaboratory left a comment for Eric Wotila

January 7

Eric Wotila commented on Amy Senk's blog post 'Advertising, Ugh'

Trust me, I understand your feelings. Both when "Local Edition" was on cable, and especially now that it's just on the web, I've gotten plenty of great feedback and compliments... but very limited ad revenue. The community loves the content we put o…

January 7

Eric Wotila updated their profile

December 30, 2009

Eric Wotila joined Amy Senk's group

I Want To Start An Online Community Newspaper. Now What?

Inspired by the work of other independent journalists, I've begun creating a local online news site for my community. I'm going to blog about my efforts, successes and roadblocks. And I'm hoping this group will foster discussions that'll help us all.

December 30, 2009

Eric Wotila joined Allan Siegert's group

Hyperlocal Journalism Business Model

The goal is to find models (templates) for journalists who want to start sites or blogs to profitably cover local news.

December 30, 2009

Eric Wotila joined RJI Mobile Group Leader's group

Mobile Strategy

Far more people own & use cell phones than will ever use computers. Mobile is the key media strategy for the 21st century. How can news outlets integrate mobile into their online, social, print, & broadcast media efforts - as well as biz strategy?

December 30, 2009

Eric Wotila is now a member of RJI News Collaboratory

Welcome Them!

December 30, 2009

Profile Information

What kind of org do you work for?

self-employed

What do you do?

journalist, businessperson, advertising/marketing professional

What strengths/expertise do you have to offer?

I've been working in journalism for the past 7 years, and have an extensive background in community media.

Between 2007 and mid-2009, I launched and operated "Local Edition," a five-minute community-interest newscast that ran every hour on HLN in Northern Michigan. The newscast was run with a very small team, and was run much like a small online startup. Local Edition shut down in July of 2009 when the cable system stopped funding the program.

I currently freelance for the local CBS affiliate... so I've now worked with everything from a small, one-man news startup to a major news station. This has given me the unique opportunity to analyze the workflows of various news operations, and work to determine what's best for a small online startup.

I'd say my biggest strength is putting out a high-quality news product, even when working with little or no funding or manpower.

Blog URL?

http://www.local-edition.com

Twitter ID?

EricWotila

What kind of help/insight do you hope to get from this community?

I'm currently working to re-establish Local Edition, most likely as an online-only news source.

The things I'm really looking into right now are how to promote an online-only program, and how to get the community involved so it's not entirely dependent on me.

As much as I'd love to run a news operation full time, I haven't yet found a model to make that financially viable... so that's another thing I'm looking into.

I think we should use the RJI Collaboratory incubator to develop:

Building blocks for geographic- or topic-based local Web news sites, Business assessment tools for local Web news sites, "How-To" handbook, News apps and widgets

Comment Wall (2 comments)

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At 6:12pm on January 7, 2010, Eric Wotila said…: Thanks for the welcome note! I've come across a few of the blogs on this site a few times while Googling the topic of online news, so I figured I was long overdue to join. The RJI Collaboratory is a great resource, keep up the good work!

At 6:09pm on January 7, 2010, RJI Collaboratory said…: Eric, welcome to the Collaboratory! And glad to see you've been so active already. And your Local Edition project sounds really interesting - I'll make sure other members of the Collab know about it.

Meanwhile, if it's helpful, as a way to make it easier to get around the network, we've got a "How We're Using This Site" page that provides more detail on the different areas of the Collaboratory and the ways to make best use of them to not only share ideas, but to get projects up and running.

And you can keep track of latest activities on the network by visiting the What's New page.

Anyway, poke around a bit and if you don't see the conversation you want to have or the project you think matters, feel free to start it.

Thanks for joining us! Adam Glenn on behalf of the RJI Collaboratory