It’s exciting to finally be able to talk publicly about the launch of FeedBrewer Inc., a new company created to provide custom publishing services utilizing the Printcasting tools that have their roots in Bakersfield. 
FeedBrewer is the next evolution of Printcasting, a self-publishing venture funded by the Knight Foundation and Participata LLC, a subsidiary of The Bakersfield Californian. Participata, which provides staff and other funding for the two-year Printcasting project, is a minority shareholder in FeedBrewer.
The goal with FeedBrewer is to continue Printcasting’s mission of simplifying the concept of “publish once, distribute multiple places” by providing custom services. By spinning off a new company, we think we’ll be better positioned to find the outside investment that can ensure the project’s long-term success. Printcasting will remain a free service at its core, but we envision FeedBrewer as a business that provides a variety of "freemium" services.
Printcasting got its start in Bakersfield through the work of Dan Pacheco, FeedBrewer’s CEO and The Californian’s senior manager for digital products. Dan and a team of three others based in Colorado have spent nearly two years developing a product from scratch. We’ve tested Printcasting in Bakersfield and learned lots of important lessons. For one, we struggled with the integrated self-serve ad model designed to reward bloggers and publishers so we switched gears in pursuit of a model tied to helping others produce really slick publications at a cost-effective price. That doesn’t mean others can’t take the Printcasting code -- which becomes open source in June -- and revisit that democratized revenue concept, but for now, it’s an idea that’s on the back burner. 
FeedBrewer will deliver custom services centered around the Printcasting publishing toolsWhat I’m really excited about is right around the corner, when polished new features arrive with the release of Printcasting 2.0. Dan and his team have really come up with a winner, I think.
It’ll be Version 2.0 that is released as open-source software at the expiration of our grant in June. Version 1.5 currently available has lots of nice touches -- and looks great on an iPad -- but the design treatments are still rough around the edges. Version 2.0 will really kickstart the possibilities of publishing once and easily distributing to a variety of platforms, including e-readers and other mobile devices, laptops and desktops, and in printed versions. Dan and his team are also working on an app for the HP TouchSmart web-connected printer.
These are great opportunities for many businesses and non-profits to take their publications -- whether internal or external -- in new directions.
In addition to The Californian, Printcasting has formal testing partners in North, Central and South America that are or will be stretching the tools in new ways:
- La República in Lima, Peru
- El Nuevo Dia in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- Temple University (which is using Printcasting to power four companion publications to its Philadelphia Neighborhoods hyperlocal news site).
- MediaNews Goup
And beyond the formal testing partners are many other people and organizations big and small around the world who have published Printcasts and given us great feedback. We’re grateful for their testing and input, and hope they find a way to use Printcasting or FeedBrewer in the future.
Logan Molen