No Fooling: Ads and a Redesign for blogdowntown
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — We just can't resist launching things on April Fools Day.
Two years ago today we rolled out the last major redesign of blogdowntown, moving away from a traditional blog format and embracing a more newspaper-style look. Today's launch isn't quite that all-encompassing, but it does implement a few things that take us an important step forward.
First, ads. You'll notice two banner spots visible on the site right now, and there are two smaller ones that will come into view shortly. We believe that blogdowntown is something cool and useful enough that we would like to keep doing it. Part of that is figuring out a model where the site can sustain itself and continue to grow.
In mid-2008, we decided to pursue the path of becoming a non-profit, using NPR's mix of foundation, corporate and individual support as a model. We applied to and were accepted into Community Partners' incubator program, and started going out to fundraise.
While we still believe that model can be successful, it wasn't for us. We have just completed a repurchase of blogdowntown from Community Partners, and are now moving forward as an independent, for-profit entity supported by ads.
The first spots you'll see here on the site are ones that we have donated to a few favorite non-profits around Downtown. Paid ads will transition in over the next month.
The process of reworking the site for ads also gave us a chance to clean up a few things about our design, which hadn't changed much since that 2008 launch. There will be ongoing tweaks over the next few days, so feel free to let us know if something isn't working or you have an idea for something that we could be doing better.
A few housekeeping notes... Politics has been merged into a renamed section simply called News. Our neglected opinion section -- we do plan to run more opinion, honest! -- has been merged with Etcetera into a section called Everyday, which we plan to use more for lighter content about living Downtown. Latest Content, the blog-style view of the site, has moved from /news/ to /latest/.
With that all out of the way, we hope you continue to enjoy blogdowntown and make us your source for news and information about what's going on here in Downtown.
Jessica Wethington McLean on April 01, 2010, at 10:47AM – #1
Looks great, Eric!
Robyn on April 01, 2010, at 10:55AM – #2
It continues to be a very readable format. It does look newspaper-style the way I liked it (before newspapers had too-quickly rotating stories, headlines, and images at the top of the main page).
Don Garza on April 01, 2010, at 02:39PM – #3
not sure if this is a aprilefools' joke or not!! But I can't believe Eric has sold out his dream of being the next PBS!! Oh , my!
I do know that OLD BANK DVD single handedly caused the demise of Blockbuster and is in talks to acquire all remaining outlet locations around the country.
Ken Hall on April 01, 2010, at 07:56PM – #4
I think it looks great, Eric. All of the hard work that you, Ed and everyone associated with blogdowntown is (as always), very much appreciated.
Guest on April 01, 2010, at 08:12PM – #5
Excellent change. But you have always had a newspaper look, maybe not the Times..but it has always looked good. Congratulations and good fortune.
Howie on the Hill.
Don Garza on April 01, 2010, at 08:33PM – #6
well , word on the street is that these changes are real. I won't believe it until tomorrow morning.
Dana Gabbard on April 02, 2010, at 09:34AM – #7
Will there still be a way to donate?
Guest on April 02, 2010, at 11:00AM – #8
i also thought it was a april fool's joke!
Guest on April 02, 2010, at 11:05AM – #9
A Grat BIG thanks to Blogdowntown for maintaining a sensible and respectful Comments Section, unlike "certain" LA blog this is a safe place to voice our opinions.
I would like to see more giveaways too!
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on April 02, 2010, at 11:10AM – #10
Dana: Unlike some media companies these days, we don't believe that for-profit companies should be soliciting donations from readers. I won't rule out that there could be pay-subscription things that we do in the future, but in the meantime feel free to point that donation to any of the many worthy causes around Downtown.
Now, if you're looking to advertise something, that's a different story...
Guest on April 02, 2010, at 11:20AM – #11
I don't understand. There's nothing about being a non-profit (actually, tax-exempt) organization that would keep you from accepting ads. Non-profits are allowed to generate revenues outside of contributions and they can even (ought to) have surpluses between their revenues and expenses.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on April 02, 2010, at 11:50AM – #12
Guest: That's correct. Part of the change was specific to our situation, where we needed to be able to implement our own accounting and payment systems separate from Community Partners.
When we weighed the choice of setting up a separate 501c3 vs going the for-profit route, it just made sense for us to go the latter. The extra paperwork of the 501c3 was more substantial than any benefit we were seeing by having that distinction.
Guest on April 04, 2010, at 04:32PM – #13
I wish you luck! I am very curious to learn about the ways that smaller blogs and news organizations are able (or unable) to sustain themselves in this 'new era' of journalism, and so your decision to go with a for-profit model versus non is something I look forward to watching (and rooting for!).