FeedBrewer taking Printcasting into the future

Updated on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:23 PM by Logan Molen

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.

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Remembering George Lynch

The Bakersfield Californian was one of the leaders in embracing so-called "citizen journalism," in which everyday people are given space in our pages and websites.

The concept was a recognition that our readers often know more than we do, particularly when it comes to niche topics. As paid professionals, journalists certainly bring expertise to the equation, but we can't be experts at everything.

Inviting readers to the table makes so much sense. But the newspaper business can be an insular world, and early on in the experiment, fellow journalists would ask me at conferences in the U.S. and Europe, "Aren't you worried about bad writing or mistakes? Who's checking this stuff to make sure it's good? Do you really believe anyone reads this stuff?"

Valid questions, but you could ask the same of paid journalists, some of whom were churning out boring, thinly sourced stories written for narrow audiences, and refusing to come out from behind their lecturns and mingle with the masses.

George LynchSo, when asked questions like, "Is there really any citizen journalism that's good?" I often referred to stories submitted by local amateur historian George Lynch.

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New section dedicated to history of Hanford race track

Mario Andretti driving a Ford at the USAC Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway in 1967.Today I launched a new section that's dedicated to Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway.

As I noted in a previous blog post and a story tracing the history of the track, Marchbanks remains a mystery to many race fans and Central Californians despite being one of the first big oval tracks on the West Coast and host to some of the greatest names and cars in the history of racing.

This is an unfinished history, and I welcome ideas, feedback, critiques, etc., in updating and expanding the story. I'm particularly interested in filling some of the gaps in the mid-to-late 1950s and any ownership change(s) in the early 1960s. I'll also be adding more to the topic as time permits, either through more research or interviews with the people who worked, crewed and raced there.

(In the future, you can find the section in the pulldown menu under the "Research/Books" link at the top of any page).