Media Models: Can You Get The People To Read Themselves?

It's the average Joe's time to shine. That's the idea Rick Singer, CEO and co-founder of Network Media Holdings, is betting on with his new set of sites. Frustrated with the current state of citizen opinion media, he's chosen to launch niche websitesStocklip.com, sportslip.com, and more comingthat are really, truly, by the people and for the people. His collection of sites, which he hopes to expand to politics, gossip, and more, is meant to give a platform to the average person, with little-to-no moderation. Citizen journalism has traditionally been practiced in a "pro-am" waywith pros and beginners working together to make sense of a story; this method removes the pros almost altogether, which pros probably aren't too pleased about. But Singer's model of an ad-supported platform that's cheap to run may inspire some entrepreneurial new-media types. Three questions with him after the jump. Is Stocklip.com basically a niche, moderated Huffington Post? "Someone could mention Huffington and this in the same breath, and that's very flattering. But where we think we're completely different is, it seems like in terms of Huffington, if you haven't written a book, you don't have a degree, you might not be published on there. They don't really let your average Joe get on there. So many people have things to say about the market, it could be about gold, it could be about oil. as long as it relates to the economic market, why not go [to stocklip.com] and say it? Anyone can go get their own Wordpress blog, but that doesn't really mean someone will listen to you. [On Stocklip.com], if someone starts cursing in a story. they're not going to get published. But if you can speak pretty good English, you're gonna get published on the site. How will you attract people to write for you for free when all these other blogs are asking the same thing? I can't find a site that is purely 100% driven by the public. Once I start marketing it on Twitter, banner exchanging with other sites, usually that's all I need and then it starts to catch fire. We don't offer compensation. The benefit for the user is its fun, it's interactive, you can put it on your résumé. we also offer some cool 2.0 features. you can upload a picture of yourself, your Twitter. Do people really want to read the opinions of average folk? Depending on the site, maybe the caliber [of writing] has to be a little different. Let's say Stocklip. I'd expect a different caliber of story because people are a little more educated, they want to make their point known. For something like Sportslip or [soon-to-be-launched] Gossiplip, I wouldn't expect the caliber of writing to be dramatic at all. Do I worry about it? Honestly, it's a concern, but I think as time goes on, maybe in 90 days I'll have a much better answer to the question. I think it'll be interesting, it'll be exciting. I think you'll get more of your "funny character writers" and people who are so opinionated that no matter what statistics you show them they won't believe it. I think people will want to come back for that.

Fishbowl

Media Models: Can You Get The People To Read Themselves?

Rachel Kaufman

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Rachel Kaufman