Back in August 2008 Techvibes covered citizen journalism pioneer Orato.com and I pointed out that while it lives in the shadow of fellow Vancouverite NowPublic, it actually predates the Web 2.0 superstar with a domain name creation date six years older.
Well, a lot has changed for Orato.com in the past nine months. Late last week, Orato.com founder Sam Yehia blogged about their reinvention and updated business model.
As the owner and founder of Orato.com it is my pleasure to formally announce and endorse editorial and design changes now live on the site. The changes have been made to:
- further professionalize the site
- focus its newsworthy content
- create and enforce a viable business model
- and keep pace with Web 2.0 standards.
In May we will actively advertise for and recruit veteran, amateur and citizen journalists alike in addition to reaching out to the thousands of contributors who have already registered.
Yehia credits new Orato.com Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Joy Gugeler and her supporting team with executing the new business plan. Gugeler was most recently Editor-in-Chief of Vancouver-based Suite101.com and helped grow its readership from 2 to 12 million monthly readers.
A quick check of Orato.com's traffic stats in comparison to old competitor NowPublic and new rival Suite101.com reveal that they're simply moving out of a small shadow into a much, much larger one.
NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months,... [more]
Suite101.com is an online magazine published by a network of over 2,000 freelance writers. As a company, we’re committed to creating... [more]
Orato.com is an online magazine that knows writers are participating in, as well as observing, the activities that spin the world on its axis,... [more]
Rob Lewis
Rob is the President of Techvibes Media Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes.com.
His diverse background includes stints in International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software and he is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University.
When not blogging on...[more]
