a plan to ease back into things…
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After the amazing procession of farewell comments, emails, myspace friend requests/messages and support from friends, Rich and I are looking for a way to keep angelenic alive. (Thank all of you for that.)
We understand the niche of reporting we have filled for the Downtown community is vital, but simply has become unsustainable on the shoulders of two people who have other full-time responsibilities.
Seeing that many of you would support an open, community-run blog - we believe it’s the perfect solution for our impasse.
Last week (pre-meltdown), angelenic was banking nearly 3,800 daily page views with approximately 1,500 unique visitors. That equates to a lot of local perspectives, eyes on the streets and overall coverage potential bigger than any team of two could ever attain.
We’ve learned that our readers are highly educated, well-informed and outspoken individuals who would do an amazing job creating content to share with this huge audience. In fact, some of you are already active bloggers.
How is this going to work?
Well, neither of us is really sure at this point. Our current back-end infrastructure will need to be modified to allow for more public access and interface, but anyone wishing to submit a post can email it to us in the meantime. Even if only a small percentage of you all contribute regularly, a re-envisioned angelenic has limitless potential.
Here are the basics:
1) Rich and I will stay on-board primarily as content moderators and contributers, possibly retaining First Look pieces as they become available.
2) Keep your submissions informative and current. No one is expecting Pulitzer Prize-winning writing, but let’s try to maintain a degree of quality and effort.
3) Post submissions may be subject to minor editing (clarity, formatting, punctuation, grammar, etc).
4) Obviously development, retail and restaurant information is what angelenic has built its reputation on, but any topic is admissible.
5) Don’t feel as though you have to break any big stories. Restaurant experiences, opinions, observations, news commentary, gallery openings, construction updates are all appreciated. Remember, Peter Johnson’s Where’s the Foodie Food? and Laura Evan’s Ralphs Feeds Flowers, Let’s Hungry Starve were both extremely popular articles.
6) Supplement your post submissions with photographs, if at all possible. I’ve built a substantial image stock of my own to assist as necessary.
7) Have fun, and know your hard work will be read and enjoyed by many people. Of course, all post authors will be credited by name.
Again, this “community-written blog” concept is unique, purely a product of Downtown’s social comradery. We have no model to follow, but if the input from all of you is strong, it will shape itself.
After a couple good posts, a user account will be created for you to become a more involved contributor.
Who will be the first to write a post?
Check out these related posts:
15 comments
See I knew it was an April Fool’s gag.
jk =p
Awesome. I’m in. (Unless it is an April Fool’s gag, in which case I’m a dork.)
None of this was ever an April Food’s gag!
Noah, Industrial District coverage… lay it on us man.
I’m all for it! I love this site.
How can I help?
I’ll do what I can as well.
As a docent for the Los Angeles Conservancy I’d be happy to contribute information about downtown Los Angeles buildings, their architectural styles and architects and some interesting stories along the way.
You guy’s have been shouldering a great site and when I read on down the blog, we can all see you’ve built a loyal fan base. Now it’s our turn to take on some of the weight.
This is very exciting. Thanks for opening this up. Let’s get started!
You guys are going to be just as busy sifting through and editing the flood of submissions, huh? :P
You know what, I’d actually like this. If you can figure out how to implement it technically, I think an open blog would be great. I live in Downtown, but most (all) of my blogging energy is directed towards MetroRiderLA, but I often have things I want to write about regarding Downtown that don’t really fit into the transit mold. Knowing I couldn’t handle another blog, I just kept those things to myself. Now maybe I can share some of my Downtown insights with the world!
I have a question for you stephen.
Are you still going to be an avid photographer? I love your flickr series, and I hope that doesn’t wane as well.
Many times, you can just post your photos on this site and give a small commentary instead of the labor intensive investigative journalism that you guys currently do.
Jeremy:
I’ve been an avid photographer for many, many years. That will not change.
AUG:
I don’t foresee there being a flood of submissions - even still, editing text is much easier than scheduling interviews, photo sessions, walking the streets for stories and hours spent writing feature articles. At first there will be editing and steering involved for us, but as this new thing gets stabilized and contributers become more familiar with the process, it should essentially run itself. With community involvement, angelenic will be much more manageable for our schedules, even allowing us to contribute when we can.
Finding enough people to maintain material on a daily basis would change everything, at least for me.
Congrats on the new creative turn, I hope this works and am eager to see the first few posts!
i’d like to help if i can. i have lived and supported downtown for two years. also i’m a student at usc so i might have a different perspective on things. anyways let me know if i could be of any use.
I’m not sure what kind of posts should be submitted, but I already blog fairly frequently on my own, and I’ve lived downtown since 2001 and worked here from 2001-2007.
I love to eat and take pictures and would like to contribute if possible.
I’m excited for this — and hope to author a post every so often… Maybe it will be about my perspective of downtown as one of the youngest members of this community. We’ll see!
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