Next Door Media’s social media reach nearing 40K

We’re big social media fans here at Next Door Media, and with each site we’ve launched, you’ll find a corresponding Facebook and Twitter account. We’ve added up all the fans and followers across the 10 sites in the network, and much to our surprise, we’re nearing 40,000 — which is greater than the primary [...]

A very big year for Next Door Media

We’ve tallied up our numbers for 2010, and it’s safe to say that Next Door Media is one of the fastest-growing news organizations in the Northwest. Our network of North Seattle neighborhood blogs grew 37%, serving up 13.3 million page views for the year. Every site grew in the double digits, and Queen [...]

Queen Anne View story triggers citywide inspection

Last November, a Queen Anne family was walking their dog Sammy on the sidewalk when the pet stepped on an electric plate near a lamp post. A jolt of electricity shot through the animal. Sammy died instantly.

QueenAnneView.com editor Thea Chard posted the heartbreaking story, which rocketed around Facebook and Twitter and tallied up [...]

Kicking off the KING-Times ad network

We’re happy to announce that Next Door Media is an inaugural partner of a new local advertising network with KING 5 Television and the Seattle Times.
The partnership combines our expertise with driving results for North Seattle businesses — we’re the region’s most-read network of news sites — with KING and the Times’ established [...]

Seattle Times wins national innovation award

Our editorial partner, the Seattle Times, has won the Associated Press Managing Editors “Innovator of the Year” award. APME said the annual award recognized the Times’ social media efforts, as well as its partnerships with neighborhood blogs in the Network Journalism Project.
Next Door Media was among the first partners in the project, and we [...]

Introducing North Seattle Guide with deals, events

We’re excited to announce the launch of North Seattle Guide, an innovative regional site that’s powered by Next Door Media’s network of neighborhood blogs. The first site of its kind, NorthSeattleGuide.com features the latest news stories from our sites, deals from local businesses, a huge events calendar and a neighborhood guide.

The centerpiece of the [...]

PhinneyWood editors accept national award

Editors of Next Door Media’s PhinneyWood.com accepted a national award from the Society of Professional Journalists in Las Vegas over the weekend.
Doree Armstrong and Dale Steinke accepted the award for deadline reporting on the devastating arson that burned a half-block of Greenwood’s business district to the ground. The October 23rd blaze happened in the [...]

New stories from UW students and CLP

We just posted the first story of the season from our ongoing partnership with the University of Washington’s Department of Communication journalism students and the Common Language Project: a multimedia look at the Buckaroo Tavern, which is closing its doors after 72 years in Fremont.
“A terrific development in the past year for our journalism [...]

Next Door Media partners with My Green Lake

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with MyGreenLake.com, one of Seattle’s best neighborhood news sites. Edited by Amy Duncan, My Green Lake is teaming up with Next Door Media’s editorial and sales network in North Seattle.

My Green Lake launched in 2009, and the site quickly became the community’s source for news and events in [...]

Poynter highlights our UW partnership

Poynter.org has highlighted Next Door Media’s collaboration with the University of Washington in a story that examines strategies for successful partnerships between news organizations and universities. “Traditionally, news orgs have turned to universities when they’ve needed interns to produce and edit content,” writes Poynter.org’s Mallary Jean Tenore. “Now, they’re starting to realize that students [...]

A neighborhood mourns a shocking loss

One of the biggest stories of the year in Seattle took place this last Saturday morning in Fremont — a fire tore through a townhouse, killing four children and a woman who took shelter in a windowless bathroom.

We were the first news organization on the scene of the fire, and we watched in horror as [...]

3 sites added to Seattle Times partnership

Three of our new sites, Maple Leaf Life, Wedgwood View and My Wallingford, have been added to Next Door Media’s ongoing editorial partnership with the Seattle Times.
In August 2009, the Times began partnering with select independent publishers with the goal to collaborate on news coverage. The partnerships are an extension of the Networked [...]

Alder joins Next Door Media as network editor

We’re excited to announce that Doug Alder, an award-winning Seattle journalist, has joined Next Door Media as editor of our neighborhood news network. Doug is working with our site editors to enhance coordination across neighborhoods, expand regional news coverage in North Seattle, and grow our community and social media efforts.
Doug worked at KING 5 [...]

PhinneyWood wins national journalism award

For the second time in less than a year, Next Door Media has been honored with a prestigious national journalism award. The network’s neighborhood site PhinneyWood.com won the national Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for deadline reporting.
PhinneyWood provided around-the-clock coverage of the series of devastating Greenwood arson fires last [...]

Groundbreaking partnership with UW’s The Daily

Next Door Media has teamed with the University of Washington’s The Daily newspaper to create a neighborhood news site for the University District neighborhood. The groundbreaking partnership with the student-run newspaper spans both daily news coverage and advertising — the first of its kind in the country.
“Our partnership with Next Door Media serves the [...]

UW students showcase entrepreneurial journalism

Through an innovative partnership with The Common Language Project, Next Door Media is publishing a series of multimedia stories produced by students in University of Washington’s entrepreneurial journalism class.
“Next Door Media and the Common Language Project are two of the futures of journalism in America,” said David Dokme, chair of the UW [...]

Seattle fireworks saved with $500k in donations

Wow, that was fast. The news broke on Thursday that Seattle’s last remaining Fourth of July fireworks show at Lake Union was canceled after the production company was unable to land a sponsor. My Wallingford reported on the surprised reaction in the neighborhood that has hosted the event for decades. Hours [...]

SeattlePI.com profiles Next Door Media

As the SeattlePI.com clocks in one year on as a web-only publication, it profiled Seattle’s vibrant independent news scene, including Next Door Media. Our favorite quote from the story comes from Robert McClure of InvestigateWest, who explains what it’s like to be an local news entrepreneur these days. “It’s kind of scary,” McClure [...]

Introducing our new site in Wallingford

Our third new site to launch this year, My Wallingford is the latest addition to Next Door Media, covering the North Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford.

MyWallingford.com is edited by Marina Gordon, a Wallingford resident who has worked in online publishing for Starwave/Disney Internet Group, contributing to ABCNews.com, as well as Real Networks and PBS. “I’m delighted [...]

Our latest addition, Wedgwood View

We’re excited to announce a new site in the Next Door Media family, Wedgwood View, covering the neighborhoods of Wedgwood and View Ridge.

WedgwoodView.com is edited by Wayne Wurzer, longtime Wedgwood business owner, even longer-time journalist and a resident of View Ridge. Wayne worked eight years as a reporter and editor at the Seattle Times, [...]