The Arizona Republic Licenses “Bakomatic” Platform
(Bakersfield, Calif. Jan. 10, 2007) – The Bakersfield Californian and The Arizona Republic today announced that the Republic will license the Californian’s social media software, Bakomatic (bake-oh-matic), through an arrangement with Californian subsidiary Participata LLC (www.participata.com).
Bakomatic is the homegrown software that runs the award-wining Bakotopia.com and the blogs, user profiles and registration system on Bakersfield.com. It also powers all of the user-contributed content features of citizen media pioneer Northwestvoice.com, and seven other niche audience-focused Web sites.
The platform is an end-to-end solution that makes it easy for any newspaper to provide My Space-like social networking, blogging, user publishing and “citizen journalism.” Bakomatic is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Knight Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism in 2006 and the NAA’s Digital Edge Award (the Edgies) in 2006. Bakotopia and Bakersfield.com are Edgie finalists for 2007.
The Republic, a daily newspaper owned by Gannett, plans to use Bakomatic to enhance the community offerings of its local portal, AZCentral.com. Already one of the most popular local news Web sites on the Internet, AZCentral.com will leverage Bakomatic to be even more participatory in nature. The Republic also hopes to use Bakomatic to drive other audience-focused initiatives.
“AZCentral.com has a long reputation of producing unique, cutting edge technology thanks to our talented team of software developers,” said Adam Hooker, Digital Innovations Manager for AZCentral.com. “We are all looking forward to the opportunity to bootstrap our social networking projects using the Participata software,” he said.
The Californian was equally positive about the development. “Our organizations share a lot of the same intellectual DNA,” said Dan Pacheco, Senior Manager of Digital Products for the Californian and project lead for Participata LLC. “We both have a passion for audience participation, and we both see the need to reach well beyond traditional newspaper boundaries when it comes to the digital realm. And of course, we’re thrilled to see our software and philosophies applied at a large, prestigious newspaper like the Republic.”
The Bakersfield Californian decided to license Bakomatic in July of 2006 after receiving numerous inquiries about the technology over the past two years. The Republic is the second licensee, after Shaw Newspapers. “We will always remain focused on our local market, and that’s why we created this platform and will continue to invest in it,” said Mary Lou Fulton, Vice President of Audience Development. “But as more newspapers look to The Californian as a leader, we see that our work also has value to the entire industry. We’re very happy to let other newspapers share our success and also help us make it better.”
That dedication to ongoing innovation can be seen with the recent launch of Bakomatic 2.0 – which among other things lets users embed their favorite videos from YouTube along with their own content. “We spend a lot of time watching how people use our tools and responding to their feedback. Supporting YouTube was a natural progression of that,” Pacheco said. The next version of Bakomatic will seek to add businesses into the mix, giving users the ability to rate and review local establishments, and for businesses to be able to create lists of favorite customers to whom they can provide special deals in the future.
Currently, only newspaper companies may license Bakomatic, with pricing on a sliding scale based on daily circulation and the number of sites they plan to create. This allows newspapers of all sizes to duplicate The Bakersfield Californian’s success in growing audience reach through user participation. In the future, licensing may extend to other industries based on market demand.
Bakomatic is available as an enterprise solution, meaning that customers need a knowledgeable technical staff able to install and maintain the software. More requirements and software specifications can be found at http://participata.com.
The Bakersfield Californian is an independently owned newspaper providing local, national and worldwide news to more than 230,000 readers in Kern County. Headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif., The Bakersfield Californian has been family owned for more than one hundred years, with the founder’s great-granddaughter, Ginger Moorhouse presiding as publisher and chairman of the board. In July of 2006, Editor and Publisher magazine listed The Californian as one of “Ten That Do It Right,” an annual listing of the most progressive and innovative newspaper companies in America.
CONTACT:
Dan Pacheco, Senior Manager of Digital Products
The
Bakersfield Californian
1707 Eye Street
Bakersfield, CA 93301
661-395-7272
or 303-465-5560
dpacheco@bakersfield.com
