Only a few dozen people were reading the blog Rhode Island’s Future when Matt Jerzyk started it back in January 2005, at a time of deep Democratic discontent.

He spoke with PBN recently about the future of Rhode Island’s Future, the power of blogging and the relationship between the old and new media.

PBN: You announced last night that Rhode Island’s Future has been purchased. Can you offer some details about the new owner and your thoughts on selling the site?

JERZYK: The blog was on the market for nine months before I recently reached an agreement for its sale. In determining whom I would sell the blog to, I focused on two central issues: editorial and financial viability.

First and foremost, I wanted to ensure that the site maintained the integrity of my original vision. When I first started the blog in January 2005, I was determined to break open a very closed, insular and notorious political culture in Rhode Island and allow all Rhode Islanders to have a voice in the political debate. I saw the blog, and the Internet in general, as a tool to create a town hall for the 21st century where all Rhode Islanders could debate the issues of the day from their home or their job or from their Blackberry while on the move. I also wanted to create a progressive media platform that provided a real alternative to the conservative talk radio stations and mainstream media coverage that still pervade Rhode Island.

In order to accomplish this mission, we had to do three things. First, we had to provide news and compelling analysis faster than the traditional “old” media. This was relatively easy since most of the state’s newspapers and television stations had ineffective Web sites that were not updated regularly. Thus, our team of five writers was able to write stories and create debate 12 or even 24 hours before it was covered in the mainstream media.

Second, we had to make it easy for people to comment on the blog so that they felt like their voice was valued and the number of commentators would continue to rise. To do this, we allowed people to comment without a registration process. This provided fertile ground, as we accumulated more than 30,000 comments on hot topics ranging from the U.S. Senate race to gentrification in Providence. In August 2007, we changed our blog software from WordPress to SoapBlox in order to increase user participation and ownership of the site. With this renovation, users are now allowed to post their own content, called diaries, which can be recommended by other users and thus moved up or down the page depending on how popular the diary is. This improvement empowered users to take ownership of the site, but it also required users to register with a name and an e-mail address. This registration process caused a decline in comments at first, but we now have over 1,100 registered users, many of whom are publishing diaries and commenting regularly.

Third, we had to stay focused on local news. As we have seen in recent months, layoffs at The Providence Journal and at local television stations have resulted in massive declines in local news reporting. For example, traditional media outlets should be ashamed of their paltry coverage of the recent General Assembly elections. Thus, we have focused on local issues and local politics and really filled the void in the marketplace for Rhode Islanders who want to talk about culture and politics in their local city or town.

I can’t overstate how much this vision meant to me in determining the future owner of the blog. However, I also wanted to make sure that the blog maintained its financial viability into the future. To that end, over the last year, I worked with several consultants in the IT community and developed a business plan so that I could ensure that the blog’s financial viability could grow even stronger with a new owner.

Taking these questions of editorial and financial viability into account and, after nine long months of planning and negotiating and meeting, I decided to sell the blog to a current writer on the site, Patrick Crowley. While there were certainly other suitors who were more focused on the financial viability of the site, Patrick has consistently demonstrated a commitment to building a progressive vision for Rhode Island through the use of the blogosphere. While I will not get into the specifics of the sale, I will say that I am extremely confident that all of the blog’s current writers, including several elected officials, will continue to write, and Patrick has laid an effective foundation to attract more writers, including those from the moderate and conservative positions on the political spectrum.

I think some entrepreneurs end up selling their “baby” for the highest price, but I also think many entrepreneurs wait to sell their “baby” to someone who will continue cultivating their vision. With Patrick, I am happy to have found this person.

PBN: In your view, what is it that has made Rhode Island’s Future a success?

JERZYK: The RIFuture.org blog has become a success because of the community we have created. With tens of thousands of readers and over a dozen writers, we are not only debating important political issues, but we have also provided an online clearinghouse for people to get involved in the political system: from the 2006 U.S. Senate race to the Rhode Island for Obama campaign in 2008. Thus, we are providing a growing platform for Rhode Islanders to talk the talk. But we are also pushing people to walk the walk because, at the end of the day, a healthy democracy requires people to engage it: by holding elected officials accountable or going to city or town council meetings or running for office directly.

PBN: Do you think we’re going to see more people blogging professionally, and turning their blogs into sustainable, even profitable, business ventures?

JERZYK: Absolutely. More and more, people are getting their news and are centering their communications on the Internet. Blogs, in essence, are intellectual communities that allow people to find like-minded people all over the globe. People are no longer confined to their local Elks Club or parenting group. Online communications will only continue to strengthen as young people come to rely on these systems as habitually as the telephone.

Nationally, several prominent reporters left traditional newspapers and founded an online news site called Politico that has flourished since its inception. Having gone through the business planning process for RIFuture.org, I am absolutely convinced that a Politico model for an online news and opinion site in Rhode Island is not only financially viable, but is the next stage for media entrepreneurialism in Rhode Island. In other words, it’s only a matter of time.

PBN: Do you expect to see blogs playing a more prominent role, in terms of both advocacy and muckraking, in state and local politics over the next few years?

JERZYK: Since the RIFuture.org blog started in early 2005, dozens of local blogs have sprung up from Portsmouth to Cranston to Newport to Pawtucket. These blogs are talking about important local issues that are ignored in the mainstream media. I am cautiously optimistic that you will see even more local political blogs spring up all over Rhode Island. People want to be involved, but they often can't make a town council meeting or a school board meeting due to work or family concerns. But they can certainly join the debate from home or from work. You will notice that many elected officials are on these local blogs as well. And with good reason. They know that blogs can be a force for change.

PBN: How do you see the relationship between blogs like Rhode Island’s Future and older media outlets like The Providence Journal? Is it competitive, complementary, or perhaps some combination of both?

JERZYK: I have a lot of respect for the television, radio and print reporters in Rhode Island, many of whom are not afforded the time to fully cover and investigate the stories they are working on. With many of them, my working relationship has turned into a real friendship, as we have covered similar stories and parried back and forth on how to cover a story. Further, as the RIFuture.org audience grew, I began providing political analysis on many of the mainstream news shows, where relationships were further strengthened. I haven’t developed these same types of relationships with the business leaders of these news organizations. I think they see blogs like RIFuture.org as competition (as they rightly should).

And, while we have broken many stories that have ended up on the front page of The Journal — from a [former U.S. Sen. Lincoln] Chafee staffer’s use of government computers to send out negative campaign messages to the fact that Gov. Carcieri was not paying taxes on his home in Florida — we are still, at the end of the day, a shoestring operation compared to the mammoth staffs and budgets of media institutions like The Journal. Thus, we definitely rely on their reporting and the reporting of many other outlets for much of our debate. Similarly, I have seen The Journal dramatically change their Web site in response to the growth of the blogosphere such that their online news operation and blog coverage is actually pretty good now.

So, the new media rely on old media and the old media try to become more like the new media. But, sooner or later, these forces will meet and produce entrepreneurial entities that take the strengths of both sides, such as Politico or Talking Points Memo or Daily Kos [are already doing]. •