via Lighthousegetaways.com
I decided to take a little break from the usual type of blogging on this site and share with you my idea for a profitable journalism site. I had to come up with this project idea for my Journalism 24/7 class, but the more I worked on it I realized that this idea could possibly be do-able. Basically the idea would be a subscription based site that provided in-depth and original news coverage of Nassau and Suffolk County on Long Island. This is a market that no one has really tapped into yet and I am sure that there are people that would be willing to pay for coverage of their counties. One may believe that Newsday has sufficiently covered this market, but the truth is that they haven’t. The majority of stories are from the police blotter and AP content. Nassau and Suffolk County tend to be overshadowed by New York City and Queens.
My site would focus on the community and also feature a social networking aspect. Those that sign up for a membership to the site will be able to create a profile, upload a picture, and converse with other residents on message boards. The message boards will be a place where people can comment on local news stories or debate on certain topics. Local businesses will be the focus of advertisements and businesses that donate to the site will be thanked publicly. Social events such as rummage sales, street fairs, and business openings will be advertised as well. There will be in-depth coverage of the schools and sports teams, which will keep the children and parents interested in the site. Schools doing certain projects will be featured and local sports teams and players will be featured as well.
Citizen journalism will play a small part on my site, but it will be heavily edited and monitored. Citizens that wish to write stories will have their article and picture featured on the site, but articles will be ranked in accordance to timeliness and importance. For example, a woman’s article about her favorite kind of cat will be ranked lower than someone writing a story that comments on current politics.
Since taking on both counties would be a difficult job, I would probably start off in one county and focus on building up the site’s following. The staff would most likely be comprised of freelance and part-time journalists and also staff to manage the website. My start up money would relay mostly on donations from residents and businesses and also loans. It would be a labor of love and require a lot of promotion, but I think that if this is done right I could have a good and profitable idea on my hands.
Now don’t go and steal it on me




