Minnpost.com

Upon visiting the site for Minnpost.com, I was slightly confused as to what was supposed to be so special about it. To try to find an answer I began to read the section of the site that describes what Minnpost.com is all about. Upon reading the excerpt describing the intentions of this new local online news site, I discovered that there were indeed a few qualities that separated Minnpost.com from the rest. First, I found it interesting that Minnpost.com is run by a non-profit journalism group(Minnpost), and that the funding was provided by four families, as well as other supporters. This stood out too me, as I don't believe that many local news sites today with such great reliability and validity are non-profit. It definitely causes me to wonder whether or not it will be able to compete with corporate business models who are working for a profit. But since the site was launched only recently, November 8, 2007, only time will tell.

After browsing the site for fifteen to twenty minutes, I concluded that I will definitely make an effort to include Minnpost.com into my daily news diet. A big plus of the site is how they mentioned in their "about Minnpost.com" page that they will not try to spread themselves out too far, and focus on supplying news to "news-intense people who care about Minnesota". I think this is a very important aspect, as many news pages try to please everyone, and in doing so they don't put enough focus on any one area. I also like how the site seems to offer several different opinions and views on subjects, showing that they care about sharing opinions from every side of the story and are not biased. Last, I will include this in my daily news consumption because the site is simple. There are no ads flashing in your face, or links trying to get you to visit several different sites, which is always a plus.

I do believe that Minnpost.com will be able to compete with corporate, for-profit business models once the site really gets off the ground. From the looks of it, the site has the resources, journalists, as well as a print edition of Minnpost to work to its advantage. If they are able to get their name out to the people of Minnesota, especially through word of mouth, they should be able to obtain a large group of loyal readers.

Last, as I said before, one of the great things about this page is how simple it is. Unlike Startribune.com which is busy, and offers a plethora of advertisements as well as advertisement links. Also, I believe Minnpost.com will be able to offer a greater variety of opinions on stories, and stick to focusing on the people of Minnesota, where the Star Tribune may try to spread there focus to other areas of the nation. Overall I believe that there are many positives for Minnpost.com, and if they are able to compete with larger, for-profit news sites, that it will grow to be something very successful in the future.