Signaling efforts to "transform themselves into a media company," D.C. newspaper The Washington Times is launching social network TheConservatives.com, said Chuck DeFeo, General Manager for Interactive and Social Media. The network will leverage the Motion social application made by SixApart, which "enables bloggers to pull together all their social networking activities into one set of action strings."
"It’s not just about print," said Chuck DeFeo at the We Media conference on participatory media. It’s about "finding multiple ways not only to creat content but distribute that content."
The paper is branching out via multiple media avenues, including radio, television, and, with BaseNews, a news site by and for military families, citizen journalism.
DeFeo should know: he led online efforts for the Republican National Convention in 2002, and for the Bush campaign in 2004. Recognizing President Obama’s runaway campaigning success on the web, DeFeo admits that "Republicans today are playing a little bit of catch-up" online, though he contends that "a lot of Obama’s campaign is off of our playbook."
TheConservatives.com is meant to be part of this online comeback. Republicans are becoming increasingly active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and DeFeo says they best their liberal counterparts when it comes to being "advocates for distributing information."
DeFeo’s dream for TheConservatives?
"It’s about being a node. How do we create a node where connections can happen?"
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