This morning I tried to publish this editorial from Beta or from The Free Press Nation under Beta. I could not do it. It appears it will be some time before the Beta is fully operational. It also is unclear how Nations/Groups will operate in the mean time or even after the changeover. Due to this uncertainty I will endeavor to proceed with publishing The Free Press and its follow along portions of My Dream as best I can with the help of our Editors, Reporters and General Members. I thank each of you in advance for your efforts.

That said, the following suggestion was forwarded to Newsvine Staff several days ago. The suggestion was and is meant to be an ice breaker and not all inclusive. There are many ramifications and possibilities if Newsvine will allow and support such a construction. In lieu of any feedback from Staff I now request Newsviners, in general, provide comment and feed back as concerns such an undertaking. I am taking the liberty of categorizing this article as news under US News as such seems necessary to be brought to the attention of all members.

The Free Press - Site Suggestion

You may or may not know that I have begun an effort to create a virtual newspaper within Newsvine. I hereby make the following Site Suggestion along with a request for permission to, at a minimum, conduct an experiment or two which could probably be done without permission but rather than me hope I am doing right I need your okay to proceed.

Using the Nations system now available I would stay within the 15 total limit. In addition to The Free Press I would open Nations called (some appropriate name) to contain material that would be much like the sections of an old time newspaper. I hesitate to give specific names but there would be Home & Gardens, Comic Strips, Puzzles, or some such. Some of these Nations could grow to become quite a chore for a single operator and I have already shown that there can be cooperative energy created among members.

Now we come to the meat of this suggestion:

I would have a Nation called "TFP Classifieds" for the purpose of members placing free, personal classifieds. I know, this could immediately become quite a task, especially if condoned and promoted by Newsvine proper. Why would Newsvine want to? Page hits. I would like to have permission to advance such a Nation. I can see growth of this Nation creating a subsystem of Nations to help with administration such as "Personals" , For Sale, Wanted, etc. Newsvine national ads would receive page hits by being interspersed among the classifieds, a known effective for Community Newspapers.

Now I come to the site suggestion that can make advertising revenue for Newsvine and the Owners of appropriate Nations. I would suggest Nations named after locales, Detroit, NY, Rockport TX, Coshocton, OH, etc. I would like these Nations to be able to create some limited size display advertising for which the owners will charge customers. I further suggest that if Newsvine were to receive $1 per ad the total could eventually grow beyond Newsvine's current income. How many cities are there and would just $1 from each be a fair amount? Newsvine's national ads could still be interspersed. With growth there is a lot of revenue potential here. Page hits for Newsvine could be astronomical.

There are a lot of ifs, ands and buts, yet I see most of them can be worked out within Newsvine's current Classic or Beta presentation. Such a syndication of Nations could very well produce enough income for Nation owners that they would completely overtake the requirement of having Newsvine monitors work overtime. With growth , Newsvine and properly motivated Nation owners, Monitors might find themselves checking through the various nations to see they remain active.

This site suggestion may be published within The Free Press in the next few days whether I hear from you or not. I make this first effort to enlist Newsvine guidance and approval. Thanks, Samuel Gerald (Jerry) Firman

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This may be the beginning of a grand dream or the end of my efforts to enlist the aid of TPTB. Thanks to all for bearing with me.