If you want to know what really threatens a chunk of The Daily Northwestern, visit the new Backfence.com for Evanston. I found it through Medill grad Patrick Cooper.
Backfence calls itself “do-it-yourself local news,” which means anyone in the community can post their own news and thoughts about what’s going on. Right now, a lot of it is promotional (people plugging their own events and causes), but it’s still interesting because the vibe is people sharing their thoughts, not journalists telling you what they think is important. Besides the stories, it offers business reviews, events, and classifieds from the community.
The first Backfence sites started in early 2005 for Virginia. Those more-established sites show critical viewpoints more often, such as debating education plans and assessing Senate races. But even there, the energy on the front page is mainly positive.
Backfence is written by the community, but local editors select the top content to be featured. (Blogger Susan Mernit notes you can also do local news through automated gathering: Instead of asking people to write on your site, you get the stuff they wrote on theirs.)
As with any social media site, Backfence’s future depends on who joins it. But I think it will become a very strong rival to The Daily’s city desk, since it’s better targeted to the readers who really care about city news: Evanston residents.