It’s a shame that ScribbleSheet, a UK-based citizen journalism startup has closed its doors. John Ndege cites one of the reasons for failure as “You need money to recruit writers but you need writers to make money.” However, i disagree somewhat. This should not be a key reason for failure, and the idea itself is not sustainable long term anyhow.
Just like Social Networks, social publishing networks also need ‘boundary objects’ - objects that brings groups of individuals with similar interests together - beyond the network itself. Flickr has photos, YouTube has video, QueensSpeech serves a community that already exists offline.
If ScribbleSheet had spent more time building the community, the ‘network’, around their venture i’m sure they would still be going today. I wish them good luck in their next venture and urge them not to give up so easily next time.