Comments on: Why modern news vendors are failing

By: Hank Graham

Hank Graham — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:00:20 +0000

CORRECTION: I was mis-informed. Pasha Amigud was the lead designer/builder on this set of stilts. That is Jasmine and he on them.

By: Hank Graham

Hank Graham — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:37:51 +0000

Just thought I’d identify the stilt walkers, who are Jasmine Gilbert and Pasha Amigud. And they built the stilts with Kim Graham, who was actually the lead designer/builder, though she wasn’t at Sakura-Con.

By: Brier

Brier — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:17:01 +0000

The Times also ran a pretty extensive preview story on April 10: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2009015663_zliv10sakuracon.html

By: rick

rick — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:10:09 +0000

The Seattle Times ran a section-cover photo showing conference attendees getting the eye from some non-conference person. The caption did mention specifics, and they certainly could have run more on it – but as you said its a bit ‘fringe’ (though i would argue not for this town!)

By: John Utz

John Utz — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:06:13 +0000

Hi Joe;

Regretfully, your thesis is not supported:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_041009WAB-sakuracon-KS.bfdb0c5c.html?btm

Our Director of Publicity reports further coverage from every major local news source that i can think of: KING, KOMO, KIRO, Q13, PI, The Times, The Weekly, and others that didnt come immediately to mind when i asked her for a quick list.

Probably our best coverage ever actually!

But let’s be clear, we where blessed by the fact that easter is a slow news weekend and that elmira worked her ass off to get the press in the door…

By: John DeRosa

John DeRosa — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:47:25 +0000

Fisher Communications decided to keep their sites being shovelware — i.e., whatever’s going out on the stations or the AP wires gets shoveled out onto the station-branded websites. No innovation, interactivity, or independent citizen journalism. This is a shame, considering their content libraries, and their stations’ current name recognition in Seattle and Portland. (Whatever value “KOMO” and “KATU” still have is being used for…nothing.)

The biggest challenge in hyper-local reporting is the tiny ad revenue. As the coverage circle contracts to a smaller and smaller locale, the set of potential advertisers who might pay for journalism also contracts. E.g., there are far fewer potential advertisers within 10 blocks of my house, vs. within 30 miles of my house.

In Seattle, I’m following two ventures that *might* lead the way, out of desperate necessity if nothing else: http://www.seattlepi.com/ and http://seattlepostglobe.org/. I’m not claiming their odds are good, but relative to the other they’re-dead-but-they-don’t-realize-it-yet venues, they have the best chances, IMNSHO.