I think Carl and Geddy may be on to something.
Carl Frankel today announced that he’s passing his “Carl’s List” enterprise of the past five years to Geddy Sveikauskas, owner of Ulster PublishingCompany here in New York State. Geddy publishes The Woodstock Times and several other robust weekly community newspapers.
I have known both men since I moved to the area in 1995. They are definitely not representative of what so many call “the old boy’ network,” which in other times we called the “establishment” or the “power structure.” They both are also people of ideas and of action.
Carl has been involved in developing the list — a localized Craigs List– hooked to a business model and a vision of local businesses ratcheting one success by emphasizing local commerce with one another at a price advantage for members. Geddy’s publishing is inquisitive, well-written (sometimes very well written) and increasingly meaty. All that, as the local daily paper, like so many other, struggles in this Web 2.0 era.
What’s up? I am not 100 percent certain, but I suspect it is significant, and that it may well contribute to the reshaping of communications. Consider this, we have very local weekly papers now aligning themselves with a bottom-up, on-line model. Both have a great deal of integrity, local involvement, and easy access. You can walk into Geddy’s office. You can call him or any of his people. You can post, pay, or play on various area’s of Carl’s List, and if you wish even find Carl over coffee in uptown Kingston.
What emerges may well be more than a local Craigs List - this being local, trustworthy, and digital. It may be a sign of a new model of communications emerging — something between institutional mainstream media and all those disembodied social media connections.
For one, I am keen on seeing where this new fusion goes. Also, good luck to Carl with his new writing gig at Matter Network.
For sometime now, I’ve seen our clients succeed by relying on the power of the “word”.