Public Press -- The Local Newspaper
Public Press -- The Local Newspaper
THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER
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Frequently Asked Questions

Background

  • What is Public Press?

    Public Press is a digital newspaper where anybody can instantly publish, organize, and archive news and information about their neighborhood or community. Citizen reporters can upload hyperlocal content anytime from any device that can send email or access the web. Readers can subscribe to live newspaper feeds and browse neighborhood news 24x7.

  • Who is behind Public Press?

    Public Press is run entirely by two friends with a shared vision for improving real community through the use of technology. We have full-time, very demanding day jobs, so we work on "P2" when we can...during the dead of night. We hope to ultimately dedicate 100% of our time to improving Public Press as a tool for citizen journalism and community-building. We have zero capital funding and earn no compensation from the service other than the reward of knowing that we are doing our best to build tighter-knit, more informed communities. Please contact us at team@publicpress.org.

  • What are "Neighborhood Newspapers"?

    Neighborhood newspapers are the heart of community, uniting the common interests of neighbors and providing the pulse of daily life. Featuring local news, events, and information, print-based neighborhood newspapers are typically owned by private, non-local publishing companies and distributed once a week or month at grocery stores, cafes, and libraries. In contrast, neighborhood newspapers at Public Press are created and collaboratively published by local citizens. They are dynamic, digital newspapers updated in real-time and accessed anytime from any mobile phone or desktop browser.

  • What is "Citizen Journalism"?

    Citizen Journalism is a movement where citizens directly participate in the process of news publishing. For example, any citizen can report, fact-check, edit, and aggregate news articles for publication. More about Citizen Journalism.

  • What is "hyperlocal"?

    Hyperlocal refers to news coverage that is tightly focused on events occurring within a limited geographical area. A print-based newspaper has only so many physical pages, so stories with limited audience appeal and narrow impact radius often are overlooked and go unreported. As a digital newspaper, Public Press has virtually no bound on "print real estate", so there's always room for stories, events, or performances that may have a limited target audience or short shelf life.

Publishing

  • How do I map my Neighborhood?

    First search for your neighborhood using the textbox beneath the Public Press logo. If you can't find your neighborhood, please map it by using the Map a Place form.

  • What Place should I post to?

    You should post to the most specific location that makes sense. Content bubbles upwards so if you post to Northwest Portland, you are going to get more people reading it than if you post to Portland. People who visit the NW Portland page, the Portland Page, the Portland Metro Area page, the Oregon page, the USA page, and the Earth page will all see it (if it's interesting enough!).

  • What is a "Column"?

    A column is the newspaper version of a blog. You can Create a Column for any subject. Every column can have its own URL like p2blog.publicpress.org so readers can subscribe to it via RSS and bookmark it. By default columns are private meaning that people can see your column, but they cannot post to it. If you want let others post to your column, you can make it a public column. Soon readers will be able to select your columns for inclusion in their own, personalized newspaper.

  • How do I publish by email?

    Just Create a Column and then setup a "Publishing Mailbox" for your Column. Then you can start posting by just sending email directly to your mailbox. Posts show up instantly in your columns. If you have a cameraphone publishing via email is a great way to capture and post hyperlocal events.

  • How do I link to Public Press entities like Places, Articles, Photos?

    You can link to anything in your text by using syntax such as ${713}. This will create a link to entity 713, which in this case is Paramaribo, Suriname. It will create a link that looks like this: Paramaribo. You can link to users, articles, cities, restaurants, whatever. They all use the same numbering scheme. If you want a more customized link, you can supply some text after the number, such as this: ${377 some yummy coffee}. This will create a link like this: some yummy coffee

    To easily find the ID of something, you can either visit the item you want to link to and look in your browser's address bar, or you can mouseover a link to the item you want and look at your browser's status bar. You should see a link that ends with a number, like this: http://www.publicpress.org/793 Just take the number at the end and you are set.

  • How do I link to other web sites?

    You can link to any website URL by including ${http://your.url Link Text} in your text. All URLs must start with "http://". For example, you can link to google by entering ${http://www.google.com Google Search Engine} to create a link that looks like this: Google Search Engine. You can leave out the title, such as ${http://www.google.com} and the link will look like this: http://www.google.com

  • How can I see all my drafts?

    You can see all your drafts by going to Publish|Your Columns & Drafts.

  • How do I change the title of a post?

    You can edit the titles of your own posts. You cannot edit the titles of posts by other people. On the post's page, click the edit button on the right hand side of the title. A form should drop down and you can edit the title.

  • How do I delete content?

    You can only delete something that you originally published, and only if it is less than 24 hours old. To delete something that you recently published, go to that item's page and look under the Details section. Click the link that asks you if you would like to delete.

  • How do I report a bug?

    Please email team@publicpress.org.

Exploring

  • How do I switch locations?

    Type your location in the textbox beneath the Public Press logo at the top of the page. Once you type a few characters, a list of matching locations will appear in the dropdown list. Just select your location from the autocomplete list and your newspaper view will switch to the selected location. There is also a dropdown arrow to the right of the textbox. This menu is shows your favorite locations as well as featured newspapers. When you switch to a new location context, this becomes your default location context. You can also edit your location context in your profile. If you can't find your neighborhoood/location. You can create a new Place by clicking the Map a new Place item from the dropdown list.

  • How do I find news and information?

    Browsing for content is much improved. We've grouped top level content types (Articles, Events, Photos, etc.) into the green section of the menu bar. When you click one of these top level types you will switch to "explorer view". From there you can narrow down what you are looking for by entering and selecting tags. We've also added "Zoom Out/In" capability so you can easily change the radius of your explorer view.

    Their is also a search bar integrated with the menubar. When you type a keyword into the search textbox, you can also filter by content type and location. The results will take you to the explorer view where you can do advanced filtering. Note, switching the search bar location does not affect your newspaper location. This was a problem before, so we've decoupled them.

  • How do I create RSS feeds?

    You can attach an RSS feed to any custom explorer view query. For example, to setup a feed based on Articles with the tag "music", click the Articles menu item and then narrow your results in the explorer view by typing the word "music" in the tags textbox. When you click the button "Search by Tag", Articles with the tag "music" will appear. You can then click the RSS icon next to the query to create an RSS feed on the query. You can also attach RSS to any newspaper column by just clicking the RSS feed icon next to the column.

  • What does "Hottest" or "Most Active" mean?

    It is an attempt to show you the good stuff to look at it. We are always evolving our concept of quality. Right now it is a combination of how many "Above the fold" votes, the number of comments, and the number of views.

  • What does it mean to 'watch' an item?

    If you choose to watch an item, any future comments on it will be shown on your inbox page. In the [User Name]|Edit Profile page, you can also choose to receive email when someone comments on an item you are watching.

  • What are the photos at the top?

    They are photos of the current location you are exploring. You can vote on what photos best represent a given location.

  • What is the "Community Filter"?

    The Community Filter refers to a reader-enabled mode of browsing that hides content flagged by the editorial process. It is a way to prevent readers from seeing spam and questionable content, without system-wide censorship. Most readers typically enable the Community Filter, but you can turn it off whenever you want. Right now the Community Filter hides posts that have been flagged two or more times. In the future, the Community Filter will be reader-configurable.

Editing

  • How does the editorial process work?

    Public Press is an organic newspaper where content is edited collaboratively by citizen journalists. People can check copy for spelling errors and grammar as well do fact-checking on submitted posts. If corrections or suggestions are warranted, a comment or message can be sent to the author. If somebody thinks a post does not meet the standards for citizen journalism at Public Press, the post can be flagged on behalf of readers. On the flip side, if somebody thinks a post is outstanding or interesting, the post can be voted "Above the Fold".

  • What are the standards for citizen journalism at Public Press?

    All posts must be useful, appropriate, and original.

  • What does "Above the Fold" mean?

    Above the fold is a term referring to the most visible part of a newspaper, the top half of the front page. Editors put the most relevant, interesting, and high-impact stories above the fold to maximize newspaper readership. At Public Press, a button labeled "Above fhe Fold" appears next to all posts. If you think a post is newsworthy, you can vote for it and help push it above the fold.

  • What are Flags and how do they work?

    A Flag is an indication that a posted item does not meet the citizen journalism standards of Public Press. This could be spam, something obscene, or a duplicate posting. Anyone can flag any item by using the Flag menu at the top right of any item page. The Flag shows up as a tag on the item, so if you change your mind or you agree/disagree with someone else's Flags, you can click the pencil next to the tag list to vote on them. Flags are used as part of the Community Filter.

Member of Public Press

Business

  • Can I post Classifieds?

    Sure, go to Publish |Classified. You can specify the type of Classified in the form.

  • How is Public Press funded?

    We have no funding. Just a lot of passion to build a grass-roots citizen journalism movement that we hope creates dynamic neighborhoods and communities.

  • What is your revenue model?

    We do not have a revenue model. We are working to figure out a model whereby citizens can share the revenue. Public Press is a community service that is not owned by us; rather it is owned by the citizen journalists who make it happen.

  • How do I contact Public Press?

    Please email us ("Truth" and "Gauss") at team@publicpress.org. All ideas, inquries, and feedback are welcome. Our sincerest thanks for your interest.

Next

  • How do I advertise?

    Currently, Public Press does not serve up business advertisements. We are actively implementing a novel approach we think will be a win-win for citizens and vendors. If you are interested in advertising, please contact us at team@publicpress.org.

  • How do I create a private group?

    We're working on this, as we realize the power of organizing community into groups at the neighborhood block level.

  • How do I create a custom newspaper?

    This is one of our core targets. We'll be rolling out this feature next. Citizens will be able to choose columns and layout options to build a dynamic, aggregated newspaper that can feed updates instantly.

  • What about copyrights?

    As a newspaper publishing service, we take copyright seriously. We're currently analyzing what we can do to create a trouble-free environment for citizen journalism reporting. We're actively looking at Creative Commons licensing options for guidance as well as online resources that deal with freedom of the press issues.