TBD is CTD: The fast rise and fall of a CJ startup
by Bill Reader, Associate Professor
UPDATE: Please see corrections in third and sixth paragraphs and clarified language in the eighth paragraph. I regret the errors and any confusing prose, and greatly appreciate TBD.com’s Steve Buttry contributing the corrections. Buttry’s response can be read at http://bit.ly/fj7nIP. — Bill R.
Just six months after it launched to much fanfare, the Washington, D.C., area community journalism site TBD.com (short for, it is suggested, “To Be Determined”) is CTD (short for “circling the drain”). Some suggest it was too ambitious a business model to launch during a sluggish economy; others suggest the demise of TBD.com was because of disagreements between the owner and the top managers.
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Additional thoughts on TBD.com
by Bill Reader, Associate Professor
My recent post regarding TBD.com’s pending decline generated some feedback, including quite a bit within TBD.com itself. Steve Buttry, director of community engagement at TBD.com and a veteran community journalist, weighed in heavily on his personal blog. He also pointed out some factual errors that I have since corrected. I encourage those interested in the issue to read Steve’s reply and the ensuing dialog (and I also am envious of the commenting forum on Steve’s blog, and hope we someday offer the same on this site).
Having considered Steve’s reply and the various comments made by others in/to it, I do want to make some clarifications and some better-explained (I hope) perspectives:
