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.

Cola Featured in PI.com Roundup of New Journalism

PubliCola Adds Life   March 16, 2010 at 12:18 pm Chris Kissel

To celebrate their first birthday, SeattlePI.com did a nice round-up of a bunch of local online news start-ups, including the Cola. They also take note of neighborhood heavyweights like West Seattle Blog, InvestigateWest (a couple of ex-PI reporters who do long-form investigative journalism and then sell the stories), and Crosscut and their “persuadable center” journalism model.

Here’s some of what they say about us:

How’s it going? It has four full-time employees and a large group of freelance “nerds.” The site hit 10,000 unique daily visitors in February.

PubliCola started humbly enough last January, when “Seattle’s news elixir” was little more than [Editor Josh] Feit and his laptop covering state politics after a couple of notable reporters—including the Seattle Times’ David Postman—left Olympia.

But the site was never just about politics. An army of “nerds,” paid freelance writers covering beats as diverse as bars, real estate and tech, supplement the political coverage.