First, a little about the company:  Serra Media is a web technology company that’s taken a unique approach to web-based software for local publishers. We think it should be truly innovative, yet easy to use. It should be made for you and leverage the power of your brand in the local marketplace. And it should even be fun. It’s all about technology with style, plus world-class customer service. And it will help you grow audience and revenue, too.

Hyperlocal imagination. Hyperlocal innovation.

Newsgarden is our first product and it can revolutionize local news. It is a map-based web application that filters the location of recent news items, blog posts and other information available on the web down to the neighborhood level.

But it’s not just news on a map; it’s about building new communities online, with new content, in a way that integrates the journalism already being done. It allows a news publisher or local blogger to cover more news with less resources, creates a new market for advertising revenue and helps you move toward a future dominated by location-aware mobile devices

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With the above in mind, I wanted to learn more about Newsgarden so I met up with Serra Media CEO Mark Briggs.  Here’s what I found out.

RI - What is Newsgarden? It looks like a Google Maps Mashup.
MB - Newsgarden is our premier product offering and yes it can be described as a Google Maps mashup, however it is much more powerful than that.  Think of Newsgarden as a social mapping platform where geographically targeted content from news staff or readers is displayed in a familiar Google map.  The content can be in the form of stories, photos, links, video and really anything else where geographic context adds to the experience.

RI – Community engagement for news sites has historically been awful.  I can see how Newsgarden works toward building community participation, but how does a newspaper make money from it?
MB – There is an advertising network called MicromarketAds built into Newsgarden and the entire thing is a hosted application that just drops right into a news site’s existing website so they don’t have to worry about development.  Geotargeting allows advertisers to place ads beside appropriate locations and even content.  The MicromarketAds platform even

RI – Who is using it now?
MB –
Newsgarden implementations:
http://bellingham.serramedia.com
http://gateline.serramedia.com
http://theolympian.serramedia.com

Micromarketads.com example:
http://gateline.serramedia.com/neighborhood/134

College site:
http://pvcm.serramedia.com

RI – What’s next?
MB – We’ve just launched WhereToGo, a way to discover and share restaurants, cafes, bars, attractions, and much more.   We’re also launching TownLuxe  to let shoppers browse trends, find sales and share tips.  These will function like NewsGarden.

RI – Thank you Mark, tell everyone where they can learn more.
MB – Visit the Serra Media website or contact me directly via email at mark@serramedia.com

About Newsgarden:

About Serra Media:

Mark Briggs | Chief Executive | mark@serramedia.com
Mark will help connect our technology to the needs of the local news publisher.

Mark, who was named as one of Presstime magazine’s “20 under 40” in 2007, began managing online news operations in 2000 and projects he has led have won regional and national awards for innovation and interactivity. He served as assistant managing editor for interactive news at the The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. from 2004-2008 and new media director at The Herald in Everett, Wash. from 2000-2004.

He is also author of “Journalism 2.0: Survive and Thrive in the Digital Age” and a frequent speaker, trainer and consultant on the topic of new media and innovation for news operations.  Update: Mark is working on a new book to follow up Journalism 2.0 called Newspaper2.0  The book will be out this Fall and is being published by CQ Press.