Seattle Times features KirklandViews.com in pilot program for community news
The Living section of the SeattleTimes.com features
Kirkland Views as “news targeted to your community”
The Seattle Times online is now featuring news feeds from KirklandViews.com in their Living section. Under a pilot program which includes Kirkland Views and the Issaquah Press, the online branch of the newspaper is exploring new ways to provide local coverage — in this case, posting RSS feeds from these pages on the Seattle Times website. The Living section of seattletimes.com states that the new feature will be “devoted to community new and happenings.”
Kirkland Views is the first blog selected by the Seattle Times as a part of the pilot program. The Issaquah Press — the other pilot participant — is owned by the Seattle Times. The Times has plans to include other area blogs as well.
A screenshot of the Living section of seattletimes.com featuring KirklandViews.com
Hyperlocal news blogs such as Kirkland Views are increasingly a complement, if not an alternative to traditional news media.
Given the the turmoil in the newspaper industry, traditional news organizations are finding it difficult to adequately cover smaller markets such as Kirkland. In an effort to improve their news coverage of local communities, The Seattle Times initiated discussions with local in bloggers earlier this year.
As the traditional news media struggle to remain viable, cities like Kirkland often end up with subpar news coverage. The Seattle Times is trying to partner with respected local blogs in an effort to improve their local news coverage without the expense hiring reporters. As the theory goes, in return for use of the local blog feed, the Seattle Times will give the blog increased traffic and visibility.
The poor state of news coverage on the Eastside
It is no secret that the Eastside of Lake Washington is poorly served by the traditional news media. There is no daily newspaper serving the Eastside and the Seattle Times carries little news from the area. Bellevue is one of the nation’s largest cities without it’s own daily newspaper. There is the monthly Eastside Sun and the former Eastside Business Journal which has been re-branded as the Bellevue Business Journal. For a short time, even the Seattle Weekly published an Eastside Weekly edition. But no more.
The closest thing to a daily paper citizens of the Eastside have is the various editions of the Reporter. These free weekly and semiweekly newspapers are distributed in parts of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah and Bothell/Kenmore. These papers are vital to the local communities they serve, but the papers themselves can scarcely be called “local” as the profits they generate do not stay in the local economy. The Reporter papers are published by Sound Publishing which is owned and operated by Black Press, Ltd., a Canadian firm with 115 newspapers in western Canada, Washington State and Hawaii.
The days of print news in its current form are numbered. The traditional news media needs to adapt to the changing environment. The Seattle Times is attempting to do just that with its pilot program to partner with local blogs.
A little history:
In 1976, Bellevue’s Journal-American was founded as a merger of the Bellevue American and the Eastside Journal from Kirkland. In 1996, the Journal-American was renamed the Eastside Journal. In 2003, the paper morphed into the King County Journal. In November of 2006, the King County Journal was purchased along with its nine sister publications by the Canadian firm, Black Press Ltd. The King County Journal published its last issue on January 21, 2007.
Posted by Rob Butcher on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 8:46 am
Filed under Headlines · Tagged with Headlines, Seattle Times
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Congrats Rob. Keep up the good work of getting the word out in Kirkland. I feel we miss a lot when we don’t have regional coverage that unites us, but sadly that is the state of things. At least we have local news with you and the Reporter. I appreciate your hard work and you’ve come a long way in a short time. Kudos to you!
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Well done, Rob, your hard work is getting the exposure that it deserves.
So this means our comments will get more eyeballs on them,too. The best blogs have thoughtful participants, so I hope that we can maintain the high level of discourse that we’ve had in our comments.
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This is GREAT..Rob! Congratulation! This is just a beginning of many many great things that will unfold as result of your hard work, integrity and honesty as a media and as a community member. WE ,Kirkland, are so lucky to have you.
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Don’t get cocky kid
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Hi Rob, It’s okay to get cocky! You’ve done a great job! I’m impressed with how quickly this has all happened and the quality of your work, You’ve written interesting and informative pieces. Congratulations!
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Thank you all for your kind words and for your support. Cocky is something I certainly never wish to become. I try my hardest to keep Kirkland Views an open and relevant community forum. I count on you, the readers, to point out my mistakes and help me correct the record when errors are made. I have no justification to be cocky. I am only trying my best and Kirkland Views is really nothing without the support of the community. And for that I am grateful.
Thank you for your comments.
Rob
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Although I might not always agree with Rob (:-)), the work he has done is impressive and it is yet another channel to keep us abreast with what’s going on in and around Kirkland.
A partnership with Seattle Times is great, since it’ll only help “spread the word”, and it is sort of a recognition of all the hard work put inot KirklandViews.com .
For those who do not like Rob’s efforts, there is really nothing that prevents anyone from starting up another news site/blog to promote a different point of view, and work on partnerships with Seattle Times or other news media.
Keep on Rocking Rob!
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I didn’t realize this blog represented a particular point of view. I disagree with some and align with others but there is often cross over in my opinions. I consider this blog a great news source for Kirkland and have never felt anything but free to voice my opinion here. And I think it is important that Bob Style and like minded others contintue to have a voice on this blog.
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Not to get into a lenghty discussion (weather is far too good for that), but I think we ALL represent particular points of view. As long as we remain individiduals, everyone will have a “particular” point of view (that many times might correspond with others’). Hence, this (excellent) blog/local news site is really no different from Seattle times, MSNBS, FoxNews, etc, in so way that it has a “point of view” – just like every human.
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