Comments on: A hole in the backfence? http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/ Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:53:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Backfence reorganizes amid revenue troubles - Lost Remote TV Blog http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2984 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:37:08 +0000 http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2984 [...] Backfence, provider of hyper-local media sites, is undergoing some tough times. CEO and co-founder Susan DeFife has resigned, and the company has had to lay off some staffers. How many people were let go is a bit of a mystery. Paid Content had originally reported that 12 of the company’s 18 staffers were let go. Backfence disputes the number, but won’t quantify it. Backfence received $3 million in venture funding in 2005, but apparently hasn’t found the right ad model to sustain itself. Writes Amy Gahran: “…finding a sustainable way to financially support local news content is a thorny issue. Personally, I don’t think conventional advertising can continue to shoulder most of that burden, in any media.” Terry Heaton adds: “It’s a tricky proposition, to say the least, but I think efforts that don’t do well have difficulty, because they’re trying too hard to build something that’s already there. Aggregation is the key, not content creation.” [...] […] Backfence, provider of hyper-local media sites, is undergoing some tough times. CEO and co-founder Susan DeFife has resigned, and the company has had to lay off some staffers. How many people were let go is a bit of a mystery. Paid Content had originally reported that 12 of the company’s 18 staffers were let go. Backfence disputes the number, but won’t quantify it. Backfence received $3 million in venture funding in 2005, but apparently hasn’t found the right ad model to sustain itself. Writes Amy Gahran: “…finding a sustainable way to financially support local news content is a thorny issue. Personally, I don’t think conventional advertising can continue to shoulder most of that burden, in any media.” Terry Heaton adds: “It’s a tricky proposition, to say the least, but I think efforts that don’t do well have difficulty, because they’re trying too hard to build something that’s already there. Aggregation is the key, not content creation.” […]

]]> by: tish grier http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2945 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:07:00 +0000 http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2945 Hi Terry, I've been looing at/following the Backfence thing pretty closely for the past couple of days... I agree that aggregation will become important. But creating the right content that resonates with a community will also be very important to the survival of any citizen journalism site. There's a lot to be said about knowing both an online and IRL community's quirks--and this is what the successful cit j folks I know have managed to accomplish. When Backfence was only in Metro D.C., it did pretty well (as I recall--I think that had something to do w/Susan deFife speaking at the first We Media con.) The model worked well for that area. However, that model didn't work so well in the Bay Area--neither did Dan Gillmor's model. The Bay Area is very different from Metro D.C., so, if we think about it, we might hazard a guess that there isn't necessarily one blanket citizen journalism model that will work in every community because every community has different needs, quirks, and participation levels. So, perhaps its not that Backfence's struggling because of a weak revenue model, or a weak editorial model but a combination of factors including an inability to intuit the minds of the communities it wanted to serve. Hi Terry,

I’ve been looing at/following the Backfence thing pretty closely for the past couple of days…

I agree that aggregation will become important. But creating the right content that resonates with a community will also be very important to the survival of any citizen journalism site.

There’s a lot to be said about knowing both an online and IRL community’s quirks–and this is what the successful cit j folks I know have managed to accomplish. When Backfence was only in Metro D.C., it did pretty well (as I recall–I think that had something to do w/Susan deFife speaking at the first We Media con.) The model worked well for that area. However, that model didn’t work so well in the Bay Area–neither did Dan Gillmor’s model. The Bay Area is very different from Metro D.C., so, if we think about it, we might hazard a guess that there isn’t necessarily one blanket citizen journalism model that will work in every community because every community has different needs, quirks, and participation levels.

So, perhaps its not that Backfence’s struggling because of a weak revenue model, or a weak editorial model but a combination of factors including an inability to intuit the minds of the communities it wanted to serve.

]]> by: thedetroitchannel http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2941 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:26:10 +0000 http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/a-hole-in-the-backfence/#comment-2941 i talked with the founders just before they launched and got the impression they had it all figured out and were not interested in any sort of partnerships or outside influence...afterall they came from the magazine industry, right? this is not an indictment of them rather just an observation akin to what you were saying about taking what's already there. this might have to do with mega-deals that we read about and upstarts swinging for the fences (backfences in this case) learned along time ago that a small slice of pie tastes a heck of alot better than none. i talked with the founders just before they launched and got the impression they had it all figured out and were not interested in any sort of partnerships or outside influence…afterall they came from the magazine industry, right?

this is not an indictment of them rather just an observation akin to what you were saying about taking what’s already there.

this might have to do with mega-deals that we read about and upstarts swinging for the fences (backfences in this case)

learned along time ago that a small slice of pie tastes a heck of alot better than none.

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