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May 30, 2007
My big gay announcement
Posted by: Chris
I have an announcement to share with those of you who've been nice enough to visit and contribute to my blog these last months. You've been wonderful and loyal and charming and, well…there's someone else. Yes, I've been cheating on you, for weeks really, and "the other man" is a new website, Gay News Watch.
After leaving the Washington Blade and Window Media last fall, I spent a good deal of time thinking about what's next step for media generally, and of course gay media in particular. I decided there was a real need for "one stop" that tailors news and views to each person.
The idea is by no means original to me, of course. If you want to know what stories have a "buzz" in the MSM, you go to Drudge Report. If you want to know what general-interest stories have a groundswell of interest on the Net, you go to Digg. But where's a poor homosexual to head? You guessed it. Gay News Watch.
There you'll find all the latest gay news and views from the MSM, the gay press and the blogosphere, but that's just the beginning. Gay News Watch is set up to tailor the way you view the news to your interests. For instance, you can:
- View articles by the state, country or region of the world that interests you.
- View which articles are the most popular or rated the highest by other visitors.
- View articles according to the categories — politics, crime, lesbian, sports sex, "weird" etc. — of interest to you.
- If you register, you can even set the site to give you a "custom view" every time you visit, showing only the types of stories, or articles from the geographic areas that interest you. Not bad eh?
- Follow ongoing stories by seeing all the headlines, blog posts, viewpoints and comments conveniently grouped together. Interested in the controversy over Isaiah Washington using the "F*word"? Click here. Want to follow how gay issues are playing out in the presidential race? Click here. Pretty nifty huh?
- You can sign up for email alerts that let you know — instantly, daily or weekly — when new stories in the categories and/or regions of interest to you get posted.
- You can even sign up for email alerts to find out right away when a new story is posted about an ongoing controversy or story subject.
- Know about a story or blog post or op-ed that isn't on the site? Submit it with a few clicks of the mouse, either anonymously or not.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg. Rather than blab on more about it here, just visit the site for yourself, take a few minutes to surf around using the navigation bars on the left and the right. Let me know what you think!
If you like the site, then please bookmark it and visit often. Let your friends know about it. If you have a blog or your own web site, then please link to it. All the good stuff that makes a fledgling web site grow.
Last, but not least, I want to thank some folks who were very important to making Gay News Watch happen. Since I haven't asked in advance to broadcast your involvement on here, I'll just say you know who you are.
Two sets of folks, however, were absolutely critical: Douglas Blocker, the brilliant (and I mean that) programmer who worked with me to design the system, and Matt, Chris and Austin at Virtual Atlantic, the company that executed the design of the site. I put this idea in their hands, and they came through amazingly, along the way putting up with my somewhat exacting demands. (Those of you unfortunate enough to work with me through the years can no doubt feel their pain).
Because some have asked since the press release launching the site went out yesterday, I'll reiterate that Gay News Watch is my baby. I'm still an owner of Window Media, but this project is completely independent. Of course I'll be posting many articles from the publications in Window Media's family because my former colleagues (and those who've arrived since) continue to do important journalism that deserves the widest possible audience. That's true of many other gay publications as well, and I hope Gay News Watch will offer a venue for them to compete for attention with "the big boys" in the MSM.
So enjoy, and enjoy often, and thank you in advance for the contributions you can make — through comments, ratings, submissions and links or just visiting — to realizing my hopes for Gay News Watch.
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Comments
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I'll second that. The site looks quite nifty but the lack of feeds is a big omission - I hope it's on the upcoming feature list.
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Ahh Kip, you truly do have the tact and charm of an Esquire! :)
I don't necessarily agree with you about the primacy of RSS, but I am working through the issue of feeds. The issue for my site, as with so many others, is that if people can load content ad-free into their RSS, then they won't visit the site and thus won't count as traffic. Still, I am working through the issue.
In the meantime, you can use the navigation bar on the left to view "WHAT'S NEW" in the last day, week, month, or (if you're registered) since you last visited the site.
Or you can sign up for e-mail alerts that send the info to you in blurb form either in real-time, daily or weekly.
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Putting on my professional interactive marketing guy hat here for a minute: feeds languished unused for some time but adoption has really taken off, largely because they can be used in less geeky ways (Google and Yahoo home pages, etc.). "Primacy" is to strong a word, but basically, I would tell a client that any site with regularly updated content needs to have them, both for reader convenience but also for search optimization.
The traffic issue you raise is a big topic of discussion in marketing circles (with lots of people predicting the death of the page view as a measurement tool). Unfortunately the alternatives are a bit of a moving target still, so I empathize with your challenge (and mean all of the above constructively).
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It's good that your voice is out there, Chris. You've no doubt learned a lot in these last 6 years. I look forward to the adventure and wish you success.
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Hi, Added a new value add to my blog this weekend - a news widget from www.widgetmate.com. I always wanted to show latest news for my keywords in my sidebar. It was very easy with this widget. Just a small copy paste and it was done. Great indeed.
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named Josh was traveling down
The comments to this entry are closed.
KipEsquire on Jun 1, 2007 6:51:46 AM:
The future of gay media, like the future of all media, is RSS.
Sorry, but no feed = no read.