Communities Digital News Splits Off from <em>TWT</em>

We reported earlier this month that The Washington Times was planning on dumping its "Communities" page, much to the chagrin of Communities Editor Jacquie Kubin. Well now it's official. In a press release today, Kubin announced that the old "Washington Times Communities" page was splitting off to form its own entity called Communities Digital News, or CommDigiNews.com. From the press release: The decision by Communities management to end its relationship with the Washington Times is two-fold. First, it allows Communities Digital News to broaden its editorial voice and become more inclusive of a wide variety of political and social viewpoints, covering all aspects of any given event or story without restraint. Second, it allows Communities Digital News more business independence and flexibility, allowing for greater reader and revenue growth including syndication. The Washington Times Communities page is still up, but it seems no content has been updated there since January 9th. The move comes a day after AOL Patch, a social news service similarly fueled by cheap or free content from community writers, axed up to two-thirds of its employees. See the whole statement from Comm Digi News after the jump... WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31, 2014 - Communities Digital News debuted its newly independent, stand alone news operation, ending its previous relationship with the Washington Times organization. The decision by Communities management to end its relationship with the Washington Times is two-fold. First, it allows Communities Digital News to broaden its editorial voice and become more inclusive of a wide variety of political and social viewpoints, covering all aspects of any given event or story without restraint. Second, it allows Communities Digital News more business independence and flexibility, allowing for greater reader and revenue growth including syndication. “Communities’ politics include the liberal and libertarian, moderate and conservative, and views without any label,” said Jacquie Kubin, founder and senior editor of Communities Digital News. “There are no sacred cows at Communities. Our writers can provide our audience the kind of information and insight it is thirsting for best when there are no prior restraints, filters, or assumptions. This is sorely lacking within the information marketplace. “This holds true whether our columnists are covering politics, entertainment, sports, health and science, food and travel, or even lifestyle features,” added Kubin. “We wish to control our own destiny and our recent growth in 2013 with an increase of nearly 34 percent in page views makes this possible.” Communities Digital News will retain the same editorial team, same stable of 150 columnists, and same production schedule on its own independent platform at www.commdiginews.com The only change is severing its editorial relationship and revenue sharing with the Times, and its URL. Kubin said Communities Digital News remains grateful and appreciative of its previous partnership with The Washington Times, and has enjoyed working with and contributing to the Times mission.

Fishbowl

Communities Digital News Splits Off from TWT

Patrick Tutwiler

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