Raise the Hammer

'Like.'

Wow, contrast your blog coverage with the Spec, supposably Hamilton's "real" journalists as Paul berton keeps telling us. http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/720161--cbc-digital-service-to-launch-thursday No wonder their worried.

It will be nice to have local news without a paywall. I can't wait.

Yeah, paying for content is so yesterday.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1176452--globe-and-mail-seeks-cost-savings-through-temporary-layoffs

Anyone know if they hired a web developer yet? It was posted on the jobs website about a month ago.

No, they have not, as of writing this.

Excited to finally see this broken open. Is it Thursday yet?

Susie wrote: "It will be nice to have local news without a paywall. I can't wait."

Exactly! The irony of the Hamilton Spectator's award winning Code Red series is that their online paywall prevents Code Red area residents from accessing important information about their neighbourhoods.

Good luck to CBC Hamilton on the launch of their digital service.

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2012-05-08 19:12:40

Is CBC Hamilton actually paying for content? Folks I've spoken with are saying, no. Just scraping and exposure. Experiences to the contrary? Would be very sad if this is true.

http://wmacphail.tumblr.com/post/23513400467/the-dad-at-the-sleepover-whats-wrong-with-cbc#notes

The map interface is flawed but at least the monthly view shows, at a glance, how much of the city they're actually covering. At this point, they're blanketing Ward 2 -- looks like 45 stories in all -- and working Beasley and Central closest. The map shows 14 stories within a block of their office, which I gather is the radius of a smoke break.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/talk/story/2012/05/11/hamilton-blogger-faq.html

2. Do you pay the bloggers that you link to?
No. All of the bloggers have given us permission to link to them, and when you click on that link on CBC Hamilton we send you directly to their originating site. We hope that increases their readership and allows Hamiltonians to find out about a broad variety of sites that may interest them. We do not ask the bloggers to create anything new or do anything different than what they produce on a regular basis. In the event that we do ask for something unique specifically for us, then the CBC would pay for that. (See question six on freelancing for more.)

6. Does CBC Hamilton accept freelance pitches?
Yes, we do. We want to hear from freelancers in this city. We are looking for stories or photos or video that tell an original story or have a unique or original treatment. The keys to making a successful pitch are originality and quality. To pitch us a story, please email Hamilton@cbc.ca. Freelancers whose work is accepted for publication will be paid.

Dunno about this, one way or the other.

A city is a place of creative possibility. What it is is constantly being negotiated.

As the T-shirt says, you can do anything in Hamilton. Strike out in bold new directions, truly reinvent the wheel, take life-altering chances and reach for a dream. Or succumb to popular pressure, create safe, marketable creative work. Maybe make your fortune. Or maybe still end up struggling to make ends meet at the end of the day. Heaven knows there are enough creative people who commute to jobs east of the city every day, because the economy here is still walking on fawn legs.

This city’s frontier moment will soon pass. It will be interesting to see what history will record of it.

File alongside “crowdsourcing,” unpaid spec work, “creative internships” and other dodgy workarounds.

The “exposure is its own reward” model may be hailed by some as victory for democratic access.

Some will feel gratified to have a larger audience, or to be seen on the arm of a marketable brand such as the CBC.

But it can lower the bar. It can set a standard that other local media players will feel inclined to emulate, in the name of the “innovation” status quo.

It also stands to undermine the market value of content and the viability of content creators. It puts a premium on the eyeballs, on the audience for content, but not the content itself. It may elevate the self-esteem of a few but not without consequence.

Maybe you won’t choose to call it exploitation if you’re flattered by the attention.

Maybe being told that this is “your CBC” and that it’s “a forum for the local community to exchange and upload their own happenings” muddies the equation.

But if it’s legit, if it’s about valuing and honouring our “distinct culture and community,” there should be total transparency around this relationship. Any good experiment involves disclosure.

The current state of affairs is not the kind of creative thinking we should be encouraging.

It is not the kind of national legacy we would want to spin off to the rest of Canada.

Especially in light of our city’s principled labour history.

No amount of cupcakes can sweeten that deal.

Early days. Let's hope, and work, for better.

If so, we're in for hyperlocal HuffPo cyber-serf churn, perpetuated with public rather than private capital, CBC instead of AOL. What you said: Sad if true.

It would've been nice for this to have been open for Doors Open on the weekend. We walked by and tried to look in but the floor to ceiling window wrap provented it. Oh well, maybe next time.

And their off: http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/

Interesting feature on the BoE demo. Wish it had a byline!

Traffic app is smooth. Long life the green wave!

I just checked out cbc.ca/hamilton and I for one think competition is a good thing! Very clean and easy to navigate. Looking forward to quality stories and information instead of some of the garbage we are sometimes shoved (obviously RTH excluded). Great addition and perfect fit for James St. N. Looking forward to the open house during tomorrow art crawl!

"Writing PR for Canon and Economic Development is thirsty work. Time for a coffee. Will take a picture. ‪#hamont‬"

http://twitter.com/NotCBCHamilton/status/207836356565663745