The News is More than What Happens

True/Slant homepage

Or so said Jock Whitney, one-time publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and now says the tag line of a fledgling news team who have taken that idea to the perfect place to test it—a social media news site.

True/Slant.com was launched  in April with some new ideas about reporting, advertising, and engaging readers. True/Slant introduces a new model in online news—one of many models we have discussed here various times that will emerge as on-line news picks up the mantle where print appears to be laying it down.
Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal online reviewed the site when it launched and described the advertising model this way:

True/Slant will run regular Web ads throughout. But, in a highly unusual move, the site plans to offer advertisers their own entire pages where they can run blogs and try to attract a network of followers. These will have the same design and features of the journalists’ pages, but will be labeled as ad content.

It’s an interesting idea—a sort of on-going advertorial—that allows advertisers to be part of the site using content, ads, (and maybe links to their sites) to gain and keep the attention of readers; another reminder that perhaps content (relevant, useful content) is still king after all. Hear that Twitter? Some people still like more than 140 characters.

There are so many interesting things about trueslant.com–the  name for one. Contributors are talented, experienced journalists who specialize in a topic or area so the site as a whole has an expanse of topics much the way large newspapers do (or used to) art, food, travel, politics, money, science, fashion, entertainment.  It’s hard for traditional newspapers to get this type of seasoned and credible journalism in one place and still be able to afford to pay for it.

Readers  are welcome to join the site and act as “mini” contributors, uploading photos, commenting, recommending, like all social media site, being part of the conversation–all of which are tracked on the site– and filing out their own profiles.

Reader Stats

You can follow contributors or topics, get only the news you want via RSS, or upon logging in,  go straight to the topic or contributors page you are interested in, rather than just being handed “front page news” based on what editors think we think is important. (Which is something other sites like Newser.com haven’t had the courtesy to do yet. Nor do many other news sites have this type of  good original content–at the same time snarky and entertaining, informative and thoughtful.)

Journalists are free to talk about a more broad range of topics that sometimes focus on geographic areas of the country giving national exposure to local happenings. That brings to mind the Guardian’s Stephen Glover’s comments regarding one reason he thinks American news papers are failing at greater rates that European, that is, the strong emphasis on local, rather than national circulation.

Why are newspapers faring even worse in America than in Britain? Partly because the internet is more ubiquitous there, and has taken more readers away from print. And partly because American titles, being with a few exceptions city-based, are particularly dependent on local classified advertising, which is flying to the internet or, during the recession, simply drying up.

Maybe the idea of bringing news from around the country to one centralized location will give a little more density to the True/Slant model of on-line news.

One feature I will be watching with interest, American Crossroads, is that of a Mid-west writer with a focus on stories from the Heartland and how they mirror the US as a whole. This writer is also a documentarian, filming “a documentary about the horrific 2006 slaying of an Indianapolis family of seven.” As the film takes on life, True/Slant readers and  contributors will be encouraged to provide feedback, contribute relevant content, and be a part of the film making process or just watch as the story unfolds.  Interesting way to involve your audience, not to mention the story is a compelling one full of contradictions and “social, ethinic, political and economic” complexities that may well reflect the current angst of our nation.