BackFence Partners with Local Paper (Will Gannett Allow The Star Press to Work With Muncie Free Press?)

Local Onliner recently posted some interesting news about BackFence.com teaming up with the Loudon Independent, a small Virginia Paper. I kinda like the idea, and have one pretty similar.

From the blog:

The Ashburn, VA-based tabloid-style paper will take user-generated content from Backfence in exchange for promotion in the paper’s pages. This is sure to have a positive effect for Backfence.

It's good, don't get me wrong, but I can't see it working with big media. And I'd rather have access to the small paper's content for online. (I've thought about asking the Elwood Call Leader - a small family owned chain in a couple counties - to do their website in exchange for rights to reuse their content.

I haven't taken the time to initiate that conversation yet, though. (They tend not to answer emails. And you just *must* check out their circa 1995 website. So quaint!)

Anyways, I'll let you know if I ever try that.

And kudos to BackFence. It's seeming the corporate model is working from the ground-up too, which is good ... for all of us.

Anyone have more thoughts on this?

And, on a semi-related sidenote, I *finally* heard back from Julie Metzger, the Gannett publisher for Muncie and Marion's newspapers. (Yes, we get 1/2 a publisher for our mid-size papers in the Midwest thanks to Gannett...) This was a few weeks ago. Basically, I asked for a lunch meeting to further discuss how we could work together.

I have a few ideas on how we could work together, but I'm going to hold onto them for a while to see if she follows up with me. (Heh. She said she wanted to do her homework on me. I wonder what corporate told her! ;)

I'd be willing to give them a lot of help with their forays into Citizen Journalism in exchange for at least one mention in their newspaper. Just one would be nice.

People are still finding me, though. More and more each month. It's harder to start something like this (by far!!) when you don't have angel investors or others giving you millions of dollars, but it's possible.

Ok, enough rambling for now.

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