Salina311 isn't a news or media company. This is a network built to foster commerce and opportunity in this community.
Problems:
- The owners of the existing, "local" media organizations aren't in this community. These organizations have cut their budgets to as little as possible in an attempt at minimum effort, maximum profit. This money leaves the community and once it is gone it's very unlikely it will ever return . There is NO actual local coverage. Just a bunch of "cut and paste" content and press releases.
- If you're in business here, in order to get the word out about your business you have to use social media that is powered by Silicon Valley & the Big Tech companies, who want a cut of the local business, squeezing money out of this community. This money will ABSOLUTELY NEVER return. On top of this, these giant organizations have branched into controlling what you get to read, assigning importance to what they believe is important.
- Amazon and the other services have made things convenient, but the money spent with them is unlikely to EVER return.
Solution:
- A network that covers ONLY local stories and information. If it is external to this county, we won't be covering it.
- A local network that empowers and delivers benefit to its members. Individual members will receive perks from local business members, and eventually all members will receive a form of equity in the profits of this network (this program is in development now).
- Business members will actually be able to keep track of the effectiveness of their outreach efforts because members will have perks available. They no longer need to rely on Silicon Valley to grow their business.
- We're also bringing back things like print newspapers. Many people still like to receive print. The problem is, the only options available provide national news. Instead of being forced to rely on old business models, we can bring back things like print because we can come up with new business models that make it viable again.
LOCAL COMMERCE HYPOTHESIS:
- The Big Tech Companies are great at "ease of use" and low-friction commerce. Barking about "buy local" works marginally, but in order to really fight back we need to enable our local businesses to build up additional strengths that offset the strengths of Silicon Valley. We are establishing a membership model for citizens and local businesses and a portion of ALL revenue will go back into perks for citizens at local businesses, as well as gift cards, and a points system to inspire loyalty.
Who owns Salina311?
- Salina311 is currently owned by a group of local investors. Eventually a share of the profits will be distributed to members. This program is currently in development.
Who is posting?
The stories on Salina311 are submitted by community members or are automated via public information sources. Some stories are written/edited by Artificial Intelligence software. This enables stories to happen fast, and often times, automatic.
A local oversight board will be convened and include community members in order to ensure that the content is of high quality, beneficial, and valuable.
This network will be innovating to provide local news, information, commerce and opportunities. Please let us know if you have ideas or feedback: listen@salina311.com