I've just spent several eye-opening hours, reading essays and other features published by The Bold Italic, a new online venture Gannett has started here in San Francisco. It's been in beta test mode since October. I first heard something like this was in the works earlier in the year, but didn't get a link to the site until recently. Here's the about us, background on the Gannett connection, plus the start-up's Facebook page.I'll write more about The Bold Italic after I've spent more time researching it. In the meantime, what do you think? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
As someone who has counted on your detailed coverage of all things Gannett, I hope you make a full return.
ReplyDeleteFrom About Us: "Commerce is the glue that binds together culture and community..." Ooh, this reeks of the purple Kool-Aid being dispensed at the dawn of the Local Information Centers. "Remember, your sole purpose is to connect advertisers with their target audiences..."
ReplyDeleteThe graphics and future nav widgets on the left side are terrific. I thought this beta was a bird site, however; very confusing. The site description: "The Bold Italic equips you with unique local intel, backstories and adventures that define San Francisco" appears below the fold in a tiny paragraph on the right. That can be one line at the very top, near the logo. Artsy and bold, by a crack team of West Coast writers designers. The yuppie staff demographics doesn't seem to represent The City, but I haven't been out there in a decade.
ReplyDeleteBold Italic is a lovely site, though I am still not sure I "get" it. The site says communities are fragmented because local media doesn't do a good enough job of telling stories, yet that very same media is what's behind the new venture. Hmmmmm. Beautiful photos, incredible design, but it's missed on one huge point: it's verbiage and writing style comes across as the worst kind of hipness: faux. It's like Grandpa hired the skateboarders across the street to design the site and then wrote it himself using his version of "the lingo". Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people go around asking each other about their backstories in SF; they don't where I live.
ReplyDeleteThis is San Francisco, right? A search of the following found nothing: gay, homosexual, transgender, bisexual.
ReplyDeleteWhat did receive a hit was "lesbian." It was about the "Universal Studios of BDSM." The two lesbian references were for the taping of a lesbian sex wrestling match and the comment there were lesbian couples in the audience to watch it.
true to Gannett style, this thing has potential, but ruins any hope by clearly pointing out the divide between staff and readers. I just don't get why someone at Gannett doesn't realize that the authorities on communities don't hang out in newsrooms, but rather populate every square inch of the streets. Gannett just doesn't get it, so I['m not hopeful this thing will survive. wonder how much this flop will cost 'em?
ReplyDeleteWhile I think experimentation continues to be extremely important to our industry, it seems to me that every experiment we test and explore has to have an actual business model in its DNA.
ReplyDeleteAggregating an audience (you name the demographics you wish to pursue) while at times challenging, is something we generally know how to achieve - whether in print or online. But where will the money come from Bold Italic to pay its way?
In other words, this site could be the best thing since sliced bread; hip, cool, interactive, and with genuinely unique content you can't get anywhere else. BUT without a revenue stream to support it, toward what end the endeavor?
4:57 p.m.: I had the same question about revenue sources.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it looks like the Bold Italic's revenue may come from fees paid by merchants whose names appear in the features published on the website. For example, I noticed the following, on the About Us page: "Later on, we plan to offer tools to help match merchants with potential customers who share their passions."
I'm guessing that registered users (readers) will be able to add merchants they like to a favorites page. Then, merchants will be able to pitch promotions/advertisements/etc. to those readers -- again, for a fee.
Then again, I could be wrong.
Jim, your hypothesis on the revenue stream for Bold Italic may be correct. I'll just say, it is hard to imagine how one could charge enough for such "product placement" or "merchant matching" to actually cover to costs of a full-time staff of professionals.
ReplyDeleteIt is especially hard to imagine, when a business can do a very similar thing for free on Facebook and/or Twitter.
I'm really not trying to be a Negative Nancy; I just do not see how such experimentation could ever lead to a sustainable/profitable business model for Newspapers, or ummm, Community Publishing...