San Francisco has a new online newspaper, SF Appeal, which offers original journalism as well as links to the best stories on other local sites. Former Chronicle deputy ME for online, Eve Batey (pictured), is the editor and publisher of the Appeal. Press Club webmaster Dave Price put the following questions to Batey:
- Q: Who is funding SF Appeal?
- Batey: It’s self funded. We’re running lean! Real lean.
- Q: What is the significance (if any) about the name San Francisco Appeal?
- Batey: Chuck Finnie, my partner at the time (Chuck has since taken a consulting position with a local firm and had to step down as partner. But he’s contributing great content to the site!) thought of the name. We wanted the name to be one that reminded folks of the old school days of newspapers, when everyone wrote like Gawker and seemed like they were having fun. And the pun aspect sure doesn’t hurt.
- Q: What about your plans for advertising (assuming that’s what you plan to do). Are you putting reps on the street?
- Batey: Dave, are you offering? We’re part of a great ad network, with Six Apart Media. No one’s going to be buying Learjets on ad network money (though I’m happy to be proven wrong about that), but it’s a great start. We’d love to work with local businesses and advertisers, of course, but right now we’re way more focused on producing great content that’ll bring folks to the site.
- Q: Describe your plans for original reporting.
- Batey: I know this sounds cheesy, but the plan with the Appeal is to “marry the best practices of blogging and journalism.” That means a lot of links, building off others’ reporting, and doing as much of your own as you can to move the story forward.
- Q: You’ve got a lot of competition on the Web — what makes your site stand out?
- Batey: Hold up there, Dave. Competition is a great thing — you always run faster when you’re running with other folks, right? And, in a web model, the more folks out there creating content that can be linked to and from, the better it is for everyone.
- Q: How will you promote SF Appeal?
- Batey: Wait, this interview won’t do the trick?