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Thursday, May 28, 2009

City / Media Talking Back to "State of the Start-ups"

Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, May 28, 2009 at 10:40 AM

Scott Sunde, a former assistant metro editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who now works for SeattlePI.com as the site's news gatherer (education), has a complaint about my story this week.

My piece, among other things, calls his start-up a "generalist" publication. Sunde writes in an e-mail:

Aubrey Cohen covers real estate. Scott Gutierrez and Chris Grygiel city hall and county government. Andrea James Microsoft and Boeing. Art Thiel, Jim Moore and Greg Johns sports. Casey McNerthney cops. Levi Pulkkinen courts. Joel Connelly on politics.

Generalists?

Today: police investigation into Amanda Knox blog wars. Judge upholds police officer's firing. Where else are they?

Point taken, though I believe Sunde is missing my point. In the article, which is about how three new online news start-ups (PubliCola, Seattle Post-Globe, and SeattlePI.com) are faring in Seattle, I describe SeattlePI.com as a "generalist" news site in contrast to PubliCola, which focuses on politics. I'm not sure how you describe a site that even-handedly covers "Fido and Fluffy," "The Refrigerator Door," and the latest star sightings—in addition to local and national news—as something other than generalist.

But I welcome suggestions.

Comments (7) RSS

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Suggestions?

Sure - stop covering Publicola. We don't care that your friends work there.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 28, 2009 at 10:51 AM

We don't care about you, Will. And why are you acting like Slog covers PubliCola on a daily basis? Slog doesn't even cover PubliCola on a weekly basis, dipshit.

Posted by Mr. Poe on May 28, 2009 at 11:17 AM

What he seems to be trying to remind you of is that just because SeattlePI.com has a bunch of general interest things like pets and slideshows, it doesn't mean that those are the focus of the actual reporters at SeattlePI.com. I wish that the website did a better job of spotlighting the locally-generated content, but if celebrity pictures keep those reporters afloat and covering important Seattle topics, than I'm not going to complain too loudly.

It also seems weird to say that Publicola is focused on politics. Sure, it's their primary topic, but they also have dedicated sections for tech, food, sports, music, film, books, etc.

And I'm not sure why "generalist" is being viewed as some sort of dirty word anyway.

Posted by josh

on May 28, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Here's a suggestion for you, Eli. Quit pretending that Publicola is on a level with SeattlePI.com. The online P-I is staffed by real journalists. Publicola 's lead political writer is a rumor-spreading little gossip-monger who doesn't give a rip about accuracy, and who is on his way to burning every source he has. I hope this is helpful.

Posted by ivan on May 28, 2009 at 12:23 PM

One thing for sure, Scott and seattlepi.com is reactionary, hoping to live, striving to please, desiring a kiss, needing a squeeze, loving a paycheck, willing to forget reality for the pleasure you might get from a sleek pair of long luscious legs.

Posted by PostPeeEye on May 28, 2009 at 3:17 PM

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