OK here is your chance to support

[masonco]

Here is your chance to support Rob Alaway with his new endeavor...A new online news source for Mason County. There have been some good articles and blogs posted with a new outlook. 

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2012/02/mason_county_press.html

[Marty Redman]

I like the new blog in the county.  But heres what I find.  If it kicks it up a notch it will have to double check those sponsors along the right side.  I looked through it.  It reports the news and adds features that may interest some, but I don't see it kicking it up a notch. 

I look to the left and the right here, I don't see any ads.  I don't see any pleas for donations except added as an afterthought at the bottom.  I have never heard anyone here ask for money or support to keep this going.  This blog may have a lot of baggage because of its ability to banter almost any topic without fear of the editorial board being taken aback, but isn't that what should be on a local blog meant for discussing local topics?  I see no one adding comments to the stories over there and I don't see it being conductive for doing so in the future.  I still wish them luck in what they do. 

[XLFD]

To be true to our iconoclastic image and our mandate to equally offend any who deserve it, we have went with no ads since 2009, our genesis.  You are right, Marty, there is a big dilemma that any major news outlet has to contend with, they either have to tone down stories that make their advertisers/financiers uneasy, or fail due to bankruptcy. 

For Rob to kick it up a notch, he would have to start publishing things rather than features and fluff pieces.  Editorials and opinion pieces could let the proverbial djinni out of the bottle for them.

[XLFD]

I would mildly disagree with your synopsis, Masonco.  I see a lot of websites around here with similar outlooks of the e-MCP, including the LDN, Picture This!, and a whole variety of tourist websites geared to our area.  The truly "new oulook" is more realized by the WMOM website, and this watchblog, in my humble, and incredibly-biased opinion, LOL.

[Willy]

Rob isn't giving the public anything that is not already available but I wish him well because his heart is in the right place. I bet if he had been unjustly fired and banished from LDN and then not permitted to purchase the paper we would be seeing an entirely different type of approach to his reporting of current events and happenings around the County.

[XLFD]

The three features introduced since Rob's declaration to "kick it up a notch" are fine articles and I would agree his heart is in the right place, but I give a friendly challenge to Rob to actually kick it up a notch and publish an article or two that may makes a strong statement or encourages opinionated discussion.  Or even take a position counter to the general consensus over here or perhaps just be a little critical of some of the sacred cows of our area.

Either way he goes, I sincerely encourage his individual efforts to get out a local site that is written by normal folks of the community, and wish him continued success.