This is interesting only because it shows that at the end of the day, it is about the platform you build, and what it enables: The Bakersfield Californian newspaper will begin marketing the home-made social networking software that runs Bakotopia, Northwestvoice.com and its other niche audience-focused sites. IT will market it to other newspapers who want to build local communities.
Though I find the comparisons with MySpace slightly naive…that this will help get those kids back onto the newspaper sites. Dan Pacheco, the Californian’s senior manager of digital products, said other newspaper publishers can attract “the elusive audience familiar” with MySpace. “Until now, a publisher’s only choice was to watch Murdoch take their most strategic young users away. Now they can fight back,” he said in a statement. Got it.