- Main Street Connect
-
Main Street Connect 
Type Private Founder Carll Tucker Headquarters Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. Area served Fairfield County, Connecticut Key people Jane Bryant Quinn, editorial director Services Online community news Employees 44 (mid-2010) Slogan A National Community News Company Website mainstreetconnect.us Type of site News Launched December 2009 Current status Active Main Street Connect is an American community journalism company specializing in hyperlocal media, that is located in Norwalk, Connecticut, and currently operates several town-based news web sites in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its business model seeks to combine the resources of a national company with the effectiveness of locally operated, web-based news sites.[1][2]
History
The company was founded in December 2009[3] by Carll Tucker, a veteran of the community news business with Trader Publications (sold to Gannett Company in 1999),[4] who describes his new approach as a hybrid of The New York Times and Facebook.[1] The company raised almost $4 million in its first round of private equity funding,[2][4] an amount which made news in the journalism industry.[5] The company's editorial director is financial commentator and author Jane Bryant Quinn, who is also a member of its board of directors.[6] Others associated with the company include Peter Georgescu, former CEO of the marketing and communications company Young & Rubicam, and John Falcone, former executive with mobile advertising company SmartReply.[7]
Main Street Connect first appeared as town-centric news sites in Fairfield County, Connecticut, named "The Daily <town>", such as the first one, The Daily Norwalk for Norwalk, Connecticut[6][8] (where the company is based). Ten such sites were in operation by the end of 2010,[9] compared to a stated original goal of fifty.[10] Main Street Connect has 44 full-time employees as of mid-2010.[11]
The franchising structure of Main Street Connect has been explicitly likened to that of the McDonald's fast food chain.[2][7] It works via a local group hiring journalists to cover a community, with the national entity supplying a framework for website technical hosting and support, working capital, and guidance related to fundamental business strategies.[2][10] There is no start-up fee, and Main Street Connect gets 17 percent of a site's revenue.[11] The eventual goal is to provide an attractive platform for national brands to advertise on, and to support a higher advertising rate than local websites can typically charge and one that it closer to the level that used to support local print newspapers.[2] The company's target for 2013 was to have 3,000 sites operating with some 10,000–15,000 journalists involved;[7][11] existing community newspapers are not seen as potential franchisees.[7] The long-term sustainability of Tucker's business model, and his vision of Main Street Connect "helping to rebuild a profession", attracted some skepticism from the Columbia Journalism Review, which also found most of the editorial content of the early Connecticut sites uncompelling, albeit presented in a colorful and exciting manner.[5]
In February 2011, it announced that the one million mark in visits to its websites had been passed,[12] and subsequently said that the sites get about 110,000 unique visitors per month against an underlying population of some 420,000 people.[13] By March 2011, the franchising model seemed de-emphasized by Tucker, who instead spoke of opening "pods" of about ten sites each.[13] The company said it would launch three pods totaling 31 sites in Westchester County, New York on June 1, and Tucker said, "We are hiring like crazy."[14] Tucker said they were seeking a national partner for 2012; stated goals for 2014 were now even loftier than the previous goals for 2013.[13]
Main Street Connect's start coincides with a renewed interest in local advertising among national companies.[10] It competes most prominently another national-local combination, AOL's Patch.com, but takes a slower approach than Patch in rolling out new sites.[8][13] It also competes with news aggregators such as Topix, event aggregators such as Eventful, and content creation sites such as Examiner.com and Yahoo's Associated Content.[8]
References
- ^ a b Tucker, Carll (April 26, 2010). "Why I Started a Business in a Dying Industry". BNET (CBS Interactive). http://www.bnet.com/blog/smb/why-i-started-a-business-in-a-dying-industry/558. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e McGann, Laura (May 25, 2010). "Borrowing from burgers: franchise-model startup wants to make community news sites profitable". Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/05/borrowing-from-burgers-franchise-model-startup-wants-to-make-community-news-sites-profitable/. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ "Community News". Main Street Connect. http://www.mainstreetconnect.us/community-news. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
- ^ a b Kaplan, David (June 1, 2010). "Hyperlocal Network Mainstreet Connect Raises $3.97 Million First Round". PaidContent. http://paidcontent.org/article/419-hyperlocal-network-mainstreet-connect-raises-3.97-million-first-round/. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b Kirchner, Lauren (July 13, 2010). "On Hyperlocals, Hyper-hiring, and Hype". Columbia Journalism Review. http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/on_hyperlocals_hyperhiring_and.php. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b Cohen, David (May 19, 2010). "Main Street Connect Expands, Names Board". Mediabistro.com. http://www.mediabistro.com/webnewser/main-street-connect-expands-names-board_b5799. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c d Fitzgerald, Mark (July 2010). "McHyperlocal: A Plan to Franchise Community News". Editor & Publisher. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/mchyperlocal-a-plan-to-franchise-community-news-62268-.aspx. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c Krasilovsky, Peter (May 4, 2010). "NY-Area’s ‘Main Street Connect’ Takes Aim at Hyperlocal (Too)". BIA Kelsey. http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2010/05/04/main-street-connect-takes-aim-at-hyperlocal-too/. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "About Us". Main Street Connect. http://www.mainstreetconnect.us/about-us. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c Krewson, Andria (May 17, 2010). "Networks Aim to Solve Local Ad Puzzle for Hyper-Local Sites". MediaShift (PBS). http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/05/networks-aim-to-solve-local-ad-puzzle-for-hyper-local-sites137.html. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c Oliver, Laura (July 7, 2010). "'We're helping to rebuild a profession': Hyperlocal network founder aims for 3,000 sites". Journalism.co.uk. http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-features/-039-we-039-re-helping-to-rebuild-a-profession-039--hyperlocal-network-founder-aims-for-3-000-sites/s5/a539517/.
- ^ "Main Street Connect Passes 1,000,000th Visit" (Press release). Editor & Publisher. February 9, 2011. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/main-street-connect-passes-1000000th-visit-64149-.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter.
- ^ a b c d Behling, Ellie (March 16, 2011). "Main Street Connect goes after Patch". eMedia Vitals. http://emediavitals.com/content/hyperlocal-main-street-connect-patch. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
- ^ "Main Street Connect Announces 31 New Sites in Westchester County, N.Y." (Press release). Editor & Publisher. March 3, 2011. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Departments/Online/main-street-connect-announces-31-new-sites-in-westchester-county-ny-64407-.aspx. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
External links
Categories:- Media in Fairfield County, Connecticut
- Companies based in Fairfield County, Connecticut
- Hyperlocal in the United States
- Companies established in 2009
- Franchises
- American news websites
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
