Publish 2 provides a link to journalism

By: Allison McNeal

Journalists may be able to use a new tool to bookmark Webpages and organize links through an Internet browser window.

The new tool called Publish 2 was developed to promote link journalism in newsrooms.

This site allows links to be tagged, edited, and selected for republication on a news Web site, or on a microblogging site, like Twitter and Delicious.

Publish 2 was designed exclusively for journalists and can be implemented in newsrooms, which can allow reporters can create a list of links around a news item and can create more editorial content for news Web sites.

Along with online journalists, newswriters could also benefit from this new tool.

Print reporters could use the Internet to post blogs easier and to get their information out to the public faster.

"An individual newspaper could get their whole newsroom to this and tap into what everybody's already reading and finding, and essentially create their own different wire service or just to publish these links on their Web site," co-founder and chief executive Scott Karp said.

One key factor to this technology is to obtain editorial control over what links are published.

Many customers do not want to see individuals use links or information that is unreliable, which could pose a huge debate on what information is correct.

"The same fact checking process that is used by newsrooms for stories needs to be developed for links," Karp said.  "Editors can have access and the final say over the links included in their title's news group on Publish 2 before they are republished on a Web site."

A way that journalist can validate information is by allowing a newswire feature, which will compare other journalists sources and information to validate that the story is correct.

According to Karp, other sources of information may be from other competitor's sites, but this mutual linking could have a positive impact on news organizations.

Publish 2 could also help newspapers break away from The Associated Press model, in which newspapers could still provide regional and national news to individuals.

"The AP story is a commodity, because it's published on 1,000 other Web sites too," Karp said.  "If there's a particular story that breaks, a page of links to other interesting reporting [of that story] is probably of more value to the reader than the commodity story that they've already read in all those different places."

With this new tool of technology, will journalists and consumers embrace Publish 2?  

Could this company change the business model of the newswire for publishers?

These questions will have to remain largely unanswered until individuals start to use and understand this new journalism tool.