Update on MinnPost: an interview with founder Joel Kramer
MinnPost in Print is also now available, with 1,500 copies a day being distributed at downtown locations in the Twin Cities. Around an additional 100 copies are being distributed by ten partners, for example the Minneapolis Central Library.
Kramer said that the initial feedback to the MinnPost site has been very positive. He said that a lot of people are impressed with the site for doing what most dailies do not do - take the reader seriously and provide substantive, analytical pieces. Many of the readers recognize the journalists at MinnPost because many of them worked for local area papers before coming to MinnPost. Readers have said that these journalists are doing some of their best work at MinnPost because they have more freedom there than ever before.
This can be backed up by the page view results that were given by Kramer. Page views have exceeded expectations, already reaching 480,000-500,000 page views for the first month. The site is updated at 11 am daily in an attempt to go against the grain of the other major dailies and try to get people's attention over the lunch hour. However, Current Posts are published all day starting at 6 am and usually not ending until mid-afternoon.
The success suggests that the journalists, most of whom previously worked for traditional newspapers, have transitioned smoothly from print to online journalism. Kramer admits that adapting is still a “work in progress” for many of the journalists, but after suffering a grim few years at traditional newspapers, they are enthusiastic about trying something new.
Kramer said that from the feedback so far, it seems that readers would like to see more investigative pieces. He said that he agrees with those readers and hopefully there will be more in the future. However, he reminds that MinnPost is a start-up and investigative work is expensive.
Kramer also spoke to the Weblog about the audio and video aspects of MinnPost. He said that for the most part, audio and video are both still used as complementary to the written story, although MinnPost readers will continue to find instances of video-only stories. For example, on Monday, MinnPost launched a video series in which immigrants tell their stories about coming to the US, in their own words.
Overall, Kramer expressed that MinnPost has so far been a success with a “tremendous flow of good work.” With the site already reaching almost 600 donors for the year 2007, the work in progress project is likely to have staying power.
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