As of May 23,2007

 

The product- A community based newspaper defined by political boundaries.

The community can be the congressional district, the state assembly district, the assemblyman district, the city council district. The editorial focus is on justice in health, education, entreprenuerial opportunity, environmental solutions and the legal system. The mission is to help people understand - "What does this debate mean to me?"

For example..what are the implications of the immigration debate in NY-8?

What are the implications of legislation in the state senate for people in NY-8?

 

The paper would manage a discourse based on the idea that real solutions have to be informed by the discourse of real people. It is the real people - the customers of government - that have the unique knowledge of what is needed to be fixed first and the probable effects of policy on the ground.

 

The only practical way to get solutions in a democracy is through a trust based open, vigorous debate among real people. For this vigorous debate to be useful, it has to be free of demogoguery and blah, blah, blah. The editing function would be tasked to make sure that content is NOT about positions, but about solutions and the real implications of proposed legislation.

 

The new technology

Kodak is introducing new technology that makes it practical to customize newspapers down the to level of 5,000 to 10,000 families. They have also integrated a system to tap citizen journalists to contribute copy, with an editorial function controlled by the newspaper.

 

Generation Goolge, Web 2.0, the Social Web, are creating an inexpensive immediately implementable infrastructure to move information. This is just now reaching an infrastructure capability.

 

Why will people want this?

While the web is a great place to find information and to enable social contacts, print is still the best way to publish useful information for real people. Especially if you are aiming at a mass market that necessarily has to reach to the bottom of the pyramid. Useful information is here defined as discourse and tools that solve immediate problems, within a real world time frame. A way to contextualize national and state policy discussions can make them accessible and create useful information. People everywhere value useful information.

 

It is possible that this newspaper could be a very valuable adjunct for high school students who live within a certain political boundary. And become a basis for social studies curriculum that could engage at risk students in a public discourse.

 

The discussion itself provides the proximate reward of being part of an intelligent discussion. The learnings that come from the discussion will help policy makers and poiticians understand what needs focus. Since the content of a particular edition is determined by political boundaries, the power centers of that political boundary will focus on the discourse.

 

 

Where is the money coming from?

Local business will want to advertise in local papers.

Large brand retailers will want to be able to customize their offerings to a particular small physical area.

If the boundary of the newspaper is consistent with political boundaries, local politicians will be natural supporters.

 

How would it work

One way - implmentable now.

In New York, the city council and others hold hearings that attract community activists and activist organizations. The hearings are televised. In addition in New York we have access mayor on a public station.

1. TIVO the hearings and access mayor.

2. Go through the hearings on TV, while the reporter has access to the web.

3. Document who was there, what they said, then follow up with links to the websites of the community organizations for back ground info.

4. Citizen journalists, student interns, maybe embedded in a classroom - both in college and high school - students would be trained to follow a "beat".

 

The second way: needs the cooperation of some politician.

Bills being considered should be posted on the internet.

They should be looked at by policy experts, who understand the local area, to discuss implications on the ground.

 

This approach transfers skills and provides an natural activity to create social capital in the form of new functionalities in the communities in which it is based.It also could focus the attention of middle class students on the bottom of the pyramid.

 

What are the costs?

To be figured out, but the competitive advantage is that this would lock into the growing citizen journalist model and it is not burdened by leagcy information systems. This will allow us to respond quickly to local challenges and opportunities. As the overhead costs could be neglible, more of the revenue stream can be invested in the most rational ways. No physical overhead, no IT overheads are necessary.

 

What are the possible growth paths

• Organic growth.

Given that there are 435 well defined Congressional Districts, and a political system that has more money than effective ways to spend it and newspapers that are facing serious business problems, it is possible that this could scale.

 

It is conceivable that this could supply a job stream for talented writers, illustrators, designers in under served communities. Given the new technology and the low overhead costs, it is possible that this would be a sustainable organic growth enterprise.

 

1. It could supply a natural job path for community people in their own communities.

2. It could supply a natural way for local business to advertise and grow. It might be possible, when appropriate to put a business development and entreprenuerial pathway in place.

3. It might have a chance to change the public discourse..changing it from an advertising based model, with very, very low voter turnouts, to a mass market activity, at least within a defined area.

 

• Partnership with an established legacy newspaper business.
• University ownership and management, with the revenue stream being invested in the missions of the universtin.

 

 

link to Citzenship test PDF will download

 

http://news12.com/BK">loogin to News12.com. Local website connected to Brooklyn News.

 

David Yassky

 

The City State of New York

http://www.polmaps.com/