Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

PSBJ Interviews PubliCola Investor Rajeev Singh

News   July 28, 2009 at 10:22 am Josh Feit

Last week, The Puget Sound Business Journal ran a Q&A with one of our two investors, Concur President and COO, Raj Singh .

Read the whole thing—Raj answers some big questions like "What are you getting for your investment?" and "How do you make PubliCola profitable?"

Re: The profitability question, I love his answer. He reframes it and asks the real question: "How do you make media profitable?"

I like this answer because I’m asked about the profitability of online journalism in a dismissive way all the time, and I have the same reaction as Raj. It seems to me the businesses that are failing are traditional newspapers.They should be challenged on this point—which, at its core is about the survival of journalism—more than a startup.

We don’t have the answers, and we’re certainly not profitable after 6 months in, but so far so good.

Really, though, my favorite answer is this: The reporter makes a go at tracking down Singh’s journalism chops (Singh is a software entrepreneur) and asks, "Brenda Starr or Lois Lane?" Singh gives the right answer.

starr