Wedia-ish developments

• Dan Gillmor launches Bayosphere.
     
• Backfence is raising between $2mm and $10mm for expansion, according to VentureWire (full release in continuation). They report over a hundred users and "a couple dozen" contributors.
     
• NYT to put up a pay wall, which is widely seen as a smart move, or alternatively a sign of a newspocalypse.
     
• Newspapers are a conversation. I'm always one to say "I told you so." That was the first line of the original "manifesto" I wrote last August. That manifesto evolved into our business plan.
     
• On the Media goes in-depth on newspapers.
   
• Alan Mutter is not impressed with Infinity Radio's podcasting experiment. Now I'm almost as much of a cynic as Alan. I wonder if MSM organizations would go so far as creating less-than-good products in new mediums like podcasting and citizens media in an effort to poison the well among middle-to-late adopters?: No Maw, I ain't a gonna Podcast. I heard em on the radio and they wuz no good.
     
• If we were better citizens, we'd be better journalists. Reminds me of Bob Woodward's talk about the fake Pulitzer story flap at the WaPo.
     
• Some interesting tidbits on OhMyNews.

Community Portal Backfence To Raise $2M To $10M 1st Round For Expansion

. By Marine Cole 5/16/2005

Almost two weeks after launching its first local community Web sites, Backfence Inc. said it is currently raising between $2 million and $10 million in its first round of financing, which is expected to close in about six months. Backfence provides a platform for local residents to post news, concerns - anything related to their local community. "We provide design templates and tools," said Susan DeFife, co-founder and chief executive of Backfence. "But the power belongs to the community and they need to decide what's important." The company selects items for the front page, but it doesn't monitor content as it would then be held liable for it. "We create a culture, an environment," said DeFife, "but the community creates its own governance." The company was founded in August 2004 and launched its service on May 3 in Reston, Va., and in McLean, Va. Backfence is planning to spread the service to 16 metropolitan markets within the next 36 months and has started talking to investors to fund the expansion. It also plans to begin licensing its proprietary technology. The order in which new markets will be launched depends on whether the financial partners that sign on with Backfence are venture capital firms or major media companies. "A minimum of $2 million will get us to a major metropolitan market," DeFife said, "while $10 million will get us far into our expansion plan to 16 markets. VCs would prefer that we go into one market to prove scalability," she said, but media companies would be more interested in expanding into more markets. Mark Potts, co-founder and chairman of Backfence, said that Backfence is a low-cost model as it relies on user-generated content, but it requires spending capital in technology and in sales. Relying solely on its users to create content is a risk, however. Since launching last week, over 100 users have registered to Backfence and about "a couple dozen" users are contributing to the Web sites. "We knew it was going to be a slow start," Potts said, adding that Backfence has mainly been conducting grass root community marketing attending local fairs and talking to local leaders. "The content will come." Backfence's main revenue stream comes from advertising in the form of displayed ads, classifieds and yellow pages. For instance, a consumer can post a classified ad for free and add a picture to the posting for $10. Businesses can post a classified ad for $50 per ad per month. The yellow pages component, which will be unveiled this week, is available to businesses for $120 a year. Potts said it will be primarily local advertising from local merchants such as hardware stores and pizza parlors. But as Backfence expands into additional markets, regional advertisers and national advertisers - especially the ones with a local angle such as automobile dealerships and franchise restaurants - might be interested. Media companies see in Backfence an opportunity to reach consumers at the local level. "They don't get down to the neighborhood," said Potts. "We give them access to the last-mile level." He also said that Backfence can allow major media companies to do "citizen journalism," but not under their own brand. As to competition from small free local newspapers, Potts said they don't usually have the sufficient number of reporters to properly cover a market and they rely often on stories from news agencies. Several start-ups, such as Insider Pages, ReachLocal Inc. and LiveDeal Inc., are already offering localized content, but they mainly focus on advertising and marketing or on recommendations of local businesses by consumers. Greensboro101 for its part has created a citizen media portal for Greensboro, N.C. "Many sites focus on one thing," Potts said, adding that Backfence is a community site that users visit more than once a day for diverse reasons. Backfence is currently funded by founders' money, consulting revenue from media companies and one individual investor. In his career, Potts co-founded WashingtonPost.com, part of The Washington Post Co. He also served on the founding team of the @Home Network. DeFife previously founded a local technology community called womenConnect.com, where she served as CEO. The Falls Church, Va.-based company currently has five employees and one part-time sales employee. It anticipates having 12 to 15 employees by the end of the year.