My Ballard, Seattle Times form partnership

We’re excited to announce an editorial partnership with the Seattle Times that encompasses My Ballard and the rest of Next Door Media’s sites, PhinneyWood, Queen Anne View, Magnolia Voice and Fremont Universe. The partnership originated with a grant by American University’s J-Lab, which aims to explore how established media companies can work together with promising neighborhood news sites.

You may have noticed over the last several weeks that SeattleTimes.com and MyBallard.com have been linking each other on stories, and that’s a component of the partnership. We’ll be exploring other ways to work together in coming weeks and months. Our friends at West Seattle Blog, Capitol Hill Seattle and Rainier Valley Post are also part of the partnership.

This is a testament to all of you — our readers, contributors and advertisers — who have helped make My Ballard a part of the neighborhood. My Ballard is powered by the neighorhood, not us. The vast majority of stories originate from our readers, and now some of the best stories will be linked from Seattle’s largest news site. We’re very pleased that the Times has chosen to work together with organic, neighborhood-grown news sites instead of creating competing efforts designed to draw advertising dollars away from the neighborhood.

And, of course, we’d also like to thank the editors of Next Door Media sites in our nearby neighborhoods: Doree Armstrong and Dale Steinke at PhinneyWood.com, John and Loree Schoonover at MagnoliaVoice.com, and Thea Chard and Judy at QueenAnneView.com.

The press release from the Seattle Times follows below…

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