[embed]https://twitter.com/mathewi/statuses/257899167073050625[/embed]
Circa seems pretty interesting even though it’s YAPTRN
Part of the thinking behind Circa comes from ideas that have been described by author and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, as well as media-startup veteran David Cohn, who is also a founding partner of Circa and acts as its editor-in-chief. The main idea is that the traditional article or story format that newspapers and other news outlets have produced for so many years no longer fits with the way we produce or consume information now. The standard “inverted pyramid”-style article was designed for the days when people might only see one report about a news event, printed on dead trees and without links, so it had to include virtually everything.
The gravity of mobile is counteracting the inertia of print in terms of news distribution, leading to some interesting approaches. The Web in general provided the initial escape velocity, but couldn’t quite get news out of print’s orbit. The confluence of current economics and mobile adoption feels like it could provide enough acceleration to do the trick.
The key is that Circa has pushed back into the newsroom’s production process and if successful in a big way will be a sea change.
Feh. Even though I wrote it, that next to last paragraph was way too weasel wordy, wonky, and jargony.