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South Park, Downton Abbey, private equity skullduggery...and online local media.
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placeblogger
Screenshot of Placeblogger
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placeblogger Cambridge, MA
Placeblogger World HQ
Now with free coffee!
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Legos
Robotic cats
Liquid nitrogen
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Lisa on Twitter: @lisawilliams Lisa on tumblr:
lifeandcode.tumblr.com
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When we began looking in 2007 1 in 8 Americans lived in a city or town with a placeblog
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Now that number is 1 in 2
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A Brief
History of
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4100
1422
800
Independent local news sites dramatically outnumber both traditional dailies and VC/foundation backed news startups such as Patch or Bay Citizen
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4100
1422
800
Independent local news sites dramatically outnumber both traditional dailies and VC/foundation backed news startups such as Patch or Bay Citizen
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1422
800
But only 4% of independent local news & community sites have a rate card
164
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Churn stats Churn!
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“Of some 1,200 sites in J-‐Lab’s database of community news sites, about half are inactive.”
J-‐Lab.org
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No, not really
Churn has always been >%50 And that’s normal for startups
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An even briefer history of private equity skullduggery
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IPO, woo hoo!
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Not so much.
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The resulting company is $1.9 billion in debt and trading at
under $1.
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5 liquidity events
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You know what’s really depressing?
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And that story played out again and again across the United States.
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The Shape of Capital Shapes Our Media
“Traditional” media companies get pumped and dumped by
private equity While independents have no
source of startup capital
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Downton Abbey
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Downton Abbey
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A short list of pikers who didn’t get paid
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Isaac Newton
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Thomas Jefferson
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Sometimes things are worth doing because they’re worth
doing
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But that’s not enough
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Thanks!
Lisa on Twitter: @lisawilliams
placeblogger github.com/lisawilliams
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A learn-‐to-‐program blog written with journalists in mind
http://lifeandcode.tumblr.com
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Get Excited & Make Things