In less than nine months, Xconomy San Diego has emerged as the most-authoritative source for news and information about technology innovation in our sun-splashed region—and beyond. As the third and newest hub in the Xconomy network, we set out from the beginning to describe how and why San Diego is renowned for pioneering advances in the life sciences, wireless, software, IT, and other technologies.
And as the editor of Xconomy San Diego, (which was preceded by the privilege of working for 18 years in the newsroom of the San Diego Union-Tribune), I am particulary proud to say our company has secured a partnership with the Union-Tribune, which operates the biggest and most-popular local news website in this region. As a result, it’s possible you’ll be seeing my byline in the newspaper again. Under our agreement, Xconomy will provide news and feature stories for both SignOnSanDiego.com and print editions of the largest metro daily newspaper in our region.
It may be that good things come in threes. This is the third syndication deal we have struck with a local media giant in our Xconomy network. Our Seattle hub, which celebrated its first-year anniversary on June 16, 2008, announced a similar syndication two months ago with the Seattle Times. That was preceded by a deal with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which continues to publish online today as seattlepi.com. To us, each deal represents further validation and recognition of the high-quality news coverage we provide by the most-established and respected professional publications in each region.
Our readership has been climbing, well, exponentially, since Xconomy launched in Boston almost two years ago (the second anniversary is June 27th.) Each month, more than 170,000 unique visitors now come to our websites in Boston, Seattle, and San Diego, as well as the national page featuring the top content from our three cities—and by leveraging our coverage through partnerships with established media providers like the Union-Tribune and SignOnSanDiego.com, we hope to extend our audience even further.
“The San Diego Union-Tribune and SignOnSanDiego remain the largest providers of news and information in the San Diego region,” said Lora Cicalo, the Union-Tribune’s senior editor for news. “Our partnership with Xconomy is a great way to extend that reach to new audiences and provide additional business news focused on technology innovation.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune has long served as the largest and most-prominent news source in the region, with prestigious journalism awards, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting, that no other local news organization can claim. It also has the biggest online audience, averaging 1.3 million unique visitors a month.
“We are extremely pleased to enter into this partnership with the Union Tribune, one of the country’s leading newspapers with a long tradition of excellence,” said Bob Buderi, Xconomy’s founder and editor in chief. “We think new types of partnerships and alliances between so-called traditional media and new media can strengthen both types or organizations and better serve their entire constituencies.”
I know our readers are inspired, excited, and enthusiastic about our coverage of the innovation economy—I hear from them every day. And I have been excited by the response I’ve received from the community that supports the broad spectrum of technology innovation in San Diego. I hope and expect to expand Xconomy’s reach even further through this alliance with the Union-Tribune and SignOnSanDiego.com. And I want to thank you, our readers, for helping us create—no, invent—this innovation in online news coverage.
