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.

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.

PubliCola Shout Out …

to the Young Democrats club at the University of Washington.

After 48-hours of minimal sleep and maximum work, Erica and I hiked it over to the U.W. campus early yesterday evening to speak to the U.W. Young Democrats club about Tuesday’s election results.

As we walked over from downtown (what were we thinking?), we chided ourselves for agreeing to their invitation, imagining a room of about eight college kids sitting around a table. Man, we should just go get dinner instead.

Wrong. The lecture room was packed with smart, engaged students who were up-to-the-minute on everything (the results of the gay marriage measure in Maine, the I-1033-like TABOR measure—also in Maine,  Washington state Sen. Lisa Brown’s legislative mishaps, the Mallahan vs. McGinn deadlock).

Great questions. And special thanks to club president Quinn Majeski for organizing the evening.

Erica and I left inspired and happy that we’d decided not to ditch class.




  • Patrick

    did you mean Maine?

  • Patrick

    did you mean Maine?

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    @1,
    Ha. Thanks. Fixed. Told ya we were operating on minimal sleep.

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    @1,
    Ha. Thanks. Fixed. Told ya we were operating on minimal sleep.

  • Quinn

    Glad you two could make it Josh

    Oh, and also, that website is actually our old, now defunct one (which unfortunately still has a rather high google ranking). Our current site is http://www.chapters.ydwa.org/uw

    Thanks again!

  • Quinn

    Glad you two could make it Josh

    Oh, and also, that website is actually our old, now defunct one (which unfortunately still has a rather high google ranking). Our current site is http://www.chapters.ydwa.org/uw

    Thanks again!

  • Chris
  • Chris
  • David

    Thank you for coming!

  • David

    Thank you for coming!

  • http://gomezticator.livejournal.com/tag/2009+election Gomez

    You walked from Downtown to the U District? As a prolific walker myself, even I’d find that walk a bit arduous. Not that I haven’t taken it… I have… and it’s LOOOONG. That’s some serious exercise.

  • http://gomezticator.livejournal.com/tag/2009+election Gomez

    You walked from Downtown to the U District? As a prolific walker myself, even I’d find that walk a bit arduous. Not that I haven’t taken it… I have… and it’s LOOOONG. That’s some serious exercise.

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    @6,

    Ha. We almost jumped on the bus around Eastlake and Lynn, but … I didn’t have any money.

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    @6,

    Ha. We almost jumped on the bus around Eastlake and Lynn, but … I didn’t have any money.

  • http://joshuadf.blogspot.com/ joshuadf

    @7: you know you can ride the bus without paying. ;)

  • http://joshuadf.blogspot.com joshuadf

    @7: you know you can ride the bus without paying. ;)

  • Megan

    Quinn has been doing a great job, this year!

    UW will also be hosting Young Democrats of Washington State Convention, March 5-7, 2010.

  • Megan

    Quinn has been doing a great job, this year!

    UW will also be hosting Young Democrats of Washington State Convention, March 5-7, 2010.

  • Katie

    Thank you so much for coming yesterday!
    I can’t tell you how helpful it was to hear your updates. I will deffinetly become a Publicola reader now!
    thanks again!
    -Katie Stultz
    UW Young Democrats

  • Katie

    Thank you so much for coming yesterday!
    I can’t tell you how helpful it was to hear your updates. I will deffinetly become a Publicola reader now!
    thanks again!
    -Katie Stultz
    UW Young Democrats

  • SpokaneJohnson

    Can someone help me out? What does the phrase “Washington state Sen. Lisa Brown’s legislative mishaps” mean specifically?

  • SpokaneJohnson

    Can someone help me out? What does the phrase “Washington state Sen. Lisa Brown’s legislative mishaps” mean specifically?