Hyper-local community blog goes print

Hyper-local community blog goes print

Zeta Prints Ltd. has released an interesting case study about their media experiment with a hyper-local community blog FlyingPickle.co.nz. The case study demonstrates how a small community blog turned itself into a weekly print publication and expanded its reach far beyond a small number of regular blog readers.

This experiment demonstrates that many media barriers are being broken by new and increasingly free technology.

The study provides a detailed insight into the operations and processes used by Flying Pickle, including Internet traffic, number of users, posts and other useful statistics. Several important issues facing any similar projects are also explained in detail:

* Commercial vs. non-profit

* Editorial policies

* Choice of technology and set up costs

* Winning trust of the community

* Advertising

* Print edition layouts

* Active news gathering

Flying Pickle experiment proved it is entirely possible for a blogger, a freelance journalist or a community activist to produce a regular print publication and attract advertising as a commercial venture. One of the strengths of the approach was to minimize the pre-press effort needed to prepare the print edition and adverts. Use of ZetaPrints web-to-print software made it possible for the whole project to be run by one person as a part-time activity.

Communities no longer need to depend on the established media outlets to deliver their news or facilitate discussions. The key to success was an extremely low set up and ongoing cost as well as its open and democratic nature. The publication had minimal amount of advertising adding to its community feel and credibility.

The full case study is available from Zeta Prints website as a Blogpaper Manual.

About Flying Pickle

Flying Pickle is a free community website for suburbs of Korokoro, Maungaraki and Normandale (Wellington). Their goal is to bring the community together in an open and democratic environment where people can exchange views, news, opinions, advertise their businesses in a friendly and non-intrusive manner as well as find help and support from others.

About Zeta Prints

Zeta Prints is a small Wellington based company developing a web-to-print technology. The company provides an open marketplace for template-based graphic design as well as web-to-print services for printing and publishing companies worldwide.

ENDS

© Scoop Media