Wikis promote discussion about future of SF Chronicle and Seattle P-I

Posted by Caroline Huber on March 12, 2009 at 1:53 AM

Since Hearst Corporation announced its intention to sell its papers or make job cuts, journalists have launched online wikis for both the San Francisco Post-Chronicle and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in an effort to generate plans to create replacement organizations. A wiki is a web page designed to enable anyone who accesses it to participate by contributing or modifying content. In this case the creators hope the wikis will promote discussion and collaboration to find solutions to the demise of the papers.

Dwell editor Sarah Rich and Wired.com reporter Alexis Madrigal launched the San Francisco Post-Chronicle wiki on February 25 as a "space where people can hash out what daily news might look like if we could start over, start fresh, and build for a digital world." The wiki has over 80 members who can use the forum to make suggestions about distribution models, coverage plans, distribution models, and design.

Similarly, journalist Chuck Taylor launched the Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer where its 40 members ponder content strategies, business models, and technology platforms. "The Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer could be the beginning of a business plan for such a site, or it could merely be a good place to mull the challenges and solutions to promoting good professional and amateur journalism in metropolitan Seattle. It's up to you," says Taylor.

Whether or not either newspaper will even require a replacement remains to be seen: it is likely that the Seattle P-I will go online-only this month, and Hearst Corporation is expected to reach agreements with the California Media Workers Guild about the fate of the Chronicle this week. However, even if the papers continue in one form or another, there will be job cuts regardless, and these wiki proposals might provide unemployed journalists with inspiration and motivation. Regardless of the outcome for either paper, the wikis prove an interesting example of journalists and communities uniting on a medium to discuss the future of local journalism.

Source: Poynter Online