Exclusive: Washington Post Grabs Syndication of Citizen ...

http://www.beet.tv/2008/09/citizen-journal.html

Purple States TV, an online political show reported through the eyes of five citizen journalists, will syndicate its videos to The Washington Post politics site beginning tomorrow, founder and executive producer Cynthia Farrar told me in an interview on the Beet.TV rooftop earlier today. The videos will be featured on the front page of the online politics section as part of the Post's "core political coverage," she says.

The Washington Post will share ad revenue with Purple States, but details of the agreement were not disclosed.

The first season of the show received 40,000 monthly views on the destination site and 100,000 total monthly views on all of its channels, including one on YouTube, during the primaries, and The New York Times posted Purple States videos in its Opinion section. Farrar, who is also a Research Scholar at Yale's Institute for Social and Policy Studies, spoke to Beet.TV about the first season of the show last year.

The second season of the show focuses on coverage of the general election and includes a new segment called The Daily Citizen, which is filmed and directed by the citizen journalists themselves.

The Washington Post.com Politics Editor Eric Pianin gave the following statement about the video series:

"The Purple States video series will showcase citizen journalism at its best. Our readers and viewers will have the unique opportunity to hear from well informed and highly motivated citizens who are being sent out on the campaign trail to task tough questions about the economy, education, national security and race and then demand straight answers from the presidential candidates and their advocates."

The Purple States has received private equity and foundation funding.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer

Update: The first video is up on the Post here.

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