Examiner.com
Encyclopedia
Examiner.com is a media company based in Denver, Colorado, that operates a network of local news websites, allowing "pro–am
contributors" to share their city-based knowledge on a blog
-like platform, in 238 markets
throughout the United States and parts of Canada with two national editions, one for each country.
Examiner.com is a division of Clarity Media Group, with the primary investor being billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz
, owner of Anschutz Entertainment Group
(AEG), Regal Cinemas
, and other media and entertainment companies. Examiner.com has over 55,000 contributors, commonly referred to on the site as "Examiners."
The company derives its name from Anschultz/Clarity's 2004 purchase of the San Francisco Examiner which had previously owned the examiner.com domain
.
In 2006, former MapQuest
general manager David Schafer, Clarity Digital Media's CEO transformed it from being San Francisco specific to being a hyperlocal
news aggregator for the 60 markets in which Clarity Media trademarked the name "Examiner". By using online geo targeting
technology, users were placed into their closest city where they could read the most recent news and updates from both their city's broadcast and print media streams
. Readers could also view local, state, national, and international content from the Associated Press
.
A small team of engineers and developers led by Maya Iyengar (CTO) and David Rager (Systems Architect) worked over the next 18 months to develop the site into something more than merely a collection of news headlines. Schafer was then replaced by former AOL
executive Michael Sherrod in February 2008 (though Schafer stayed on as Chief Operations Officer) and in late April 2008, with a new President and CEO at the helm, the current model of using "Examiners" to write about their city was unveiled.
Launching the new model were 115 "Examiners" in five markets: Denver, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with the latter three due to the presence of Examiner newspapers already operating in those cities, namely The Baltimore Examiner
, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Washington Examiner. There was also a flagship edition, the national edition, where users would be placed if geo targeting efforts failed to produce a designated market area. In March 2009, Sherrod was replaced by Rick Blair, also formerly of AOL.
In September 2009 Clarity Media purchased NowPublic
, a Vancouver
-based website consisting of citizen journalists contributing from around the world. Clarity Digital Group was then developed under Clarity Media, housing both Examiner.com and NowPublic. Blair serves as the CEO of both Clarity Digital and Examiner.com.
On October 29, 2009, the website's first international expansion took place when Examiner.com Canada was launched in Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, along with one national Canadian edition. In 2010 it moved from a Coldfusion
to Drupal
platform. Examiner had significant issues with the transition to Drupal
In February 2011, Google changed its algorithm significantly reducing how high it appears in search results.
, growing faster in August from the same month of 2008 than any of the other top 30 Internet news sites in the United States, increasing page views over 342 percent to 7,569,000 unique users. Examiner.com reports that it received 20.8 million unique visitors to Examiner.com sites in July 2010, with 60.1 million page views served, according to Omniture
.
Examiner.com reports adding over 3,000 articles a day, to a growing library of 1.5 million pieces of content.
system considering page views and other metrics, or the "Gawker-model", made famous by the blog Gawker.com
. During 2009 many of the writers were receiving $0.01 per page view. Examiner.com later offered a variety of pay scale options to their writers. Examiner.com now bases compensation on variables such as subscriptions, page view traffic and session length.
The company has been criticized for the low compensation received by some contributors, although Examiner.com claims it communicates contributors should not consider this full-time employment, and "tries to be very clear and transparent that this isn't a 'quit your day job' opportunity.”
.
Pro–am
Pro–am , short for but rarely written out as professional–amateur, is a concept that describes a blurring of the distinction between professional and amateur competition within a sport...
contributors" to share their city-based knowledge on a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
-like platform, in 238 markets
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
throughout the United States and parts of Canada with two national editions, one for each country.
Examiner.com is a division of Clarity Media Group, with the primary investor being billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz
Philip Anschutz
Philip Frederick Anschutz is an American entrepreneur. Anschutz bought out his father's drilling company in 1961 and earned large returns in Wyoming. He has invested in stocks, real estate and railroads...
, owner of Anschutz Entertainment Group
Anschutz Entertainment Group
The Anschutz Entertainment Group is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events, the owner of the world’s most profitable sports and entertainment venues, and under AEG Live the world's...
(AEG), Regal Cinemas
Regal Cinemas
Regal Cinemas is a UK-based cinema chain since the early days of the cinema. In 1928, Regal Cinemas became part of Associated British Cinemas but has retained the name 'Regal Cinemas'....
, and other media and entertainment companies. Examiner.com has over 55,000 contributors, commonly referred to on the site as "Examiners."
The company derives its name from Anschultz/Clarity's 2004 purchase of the San Francisco Examiner which had previously owned the examiner.com domain
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
.
History
The domain was registered by The San Francisco Examiner on September 13, 1994, and was used by the San Francisco newspaper. Anschutz/Clarity acquired the examiner.com domain in 2004 when it acquired the San Francisco newspaper.In 2006, former MapQuest
MapQuest
MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service owned by AOL. The company was founded in 1967 as Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969. When it became an independent company in 1994, it was...
general manager David Schafer, Clarity Digital Media's CEO transformed it from being San Francisco specific to being a hyperlocal
Hyperlocal
The term hyperlocal can be used as a noun in isolation or as a modifier of some other term . It connotes having the character of being oriented around a well defined, community scale area with primary focus being directed towards the concerns of its residents...
news aggregator for the 60 markets in which Clarity Media trademarked the name "Examiner". By using online geo targeting
Geo targeting
Geo targeting in geomarketing and internet marketing is the method of determining the geolocation of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP or other...
technology, users were placed into their closest city where they could read the most recent news and updates from both their city's broadcast and print media streams
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
. Readers could also view local, state, national, and international content from the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
.
A small team of engineers and developers led by Maya Iyengar (CTO) and David Rager (Systems Architect) worked over the next 18 months to develop the site into something more than merely a collection of news headlines. Schafer was then replaced by former AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
executive Michael Sherrod in February 2008 (though Schafer stayed on as Chief Operations Officer) and in late April 2008, with a new President and CEO at the helm, the current model of using "Examiners" to write about their city was unveiled.
Launching the new model were 115 "Examiners" in five markets: Denver, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with the latter three due to the presence of Examiner newspapers already operating in those cities, namely The Baltimore Examiner
The Baltimore Examiner
The Baltimore Examiner was a free daily newspaper, one of the two big dailies in Baltimore, Maryland . It was launched in 2006 by the Philip Anschutz-owned Clarity Media Group as part of a national chain that includes The San Francisco Examiner and The Washington Examiner...
, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Washington Examiner. There was also a flagship edition, the national edition, where users would be placed if geo targeting efforts failed to produce a designated market area. In March 2009, Sherrod was replaced by Rick Blair, also formerly of AOL.
In September 2009 Clarity Media purchased NowPublic
NowPublic
NowPublic is a user-generated social news website. The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was founded by Michael Tippett, Leonard Brody and Michael E. Meyers in 2005. On Sept. 2, 2009 the company was acquired by Clarity Digital Group, LLC, wholly owned by The Anschutz...
, a Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
-based website consisting of citizen journalists contributing from around the world. Clarity Digital Group was then developed under Clarity Media, housing both Examiner.com and NowPublic. Blair serves as the CEO of both Clarity Digital and Examiner.com.
On October 29, 2009, the website's first international expansion took place when Examiner.com Canada was launched in Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, along with one national Canadian edition. In 2010 it moved from a Coldfusion
ColdFusion
In computing, ColdFusion is the name of a commercial rapid application development platform invented by Jeremy and JJ Allaire in 1995. ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a database, by version 2 it had...
to Drupal
Drupal
Drupal is a free and open-source content management system and content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and...
platform. Examiner had significant issues with the transition to Drupal
In February 2011, Google changed its algorithm significantly reducing how high it appears in search results.
Growth
In August 2009, Examiner.com was named one of the fastest growing network of localized websites by Nielsen OnlineNielsen Online
Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Company, provides measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior. Previously a majority investor in both companies, Nielsen purchased NetRatings and BuzzMetrics in the...
, growing faster in August from the same month of 2008 than any of the other top 30 Internet news sites in the United States, increasing page views over 342 percent to 7,569,000 unique users. Examiner.com reports that it received 20.8 million unique visitors to Examiner.com sites in July 2010, with 60.1 million page views served, according to Omniture
Omniture
Omniture is an online marketing and web analytics business unit owned by Adobe Systems. The Omniture Business Unit is based in Orem, Utah, with offices worldwide. It serves customers in 75 countries worldwide.- History :...
.
Examiner.com reports adding over 3,000 articles a day, to a growing library of 1.5 million pieces of content.
Pay scale
Examiners are paid based on a black boxBlack box
A black box is a device, object, or system whose inner workings are unknown; only the input, transfer, and output are known characteristics.The term black box can also refer to:-In science and technology:*Black box theory, a philosophical theory...
system considering page views and other metrics, or the "Gawker-model", made famous by the blog Gawker.com
Gawker.com
Gawker is a newsmagazine/blog based in New York City that bills itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and focuses on celebrities and the media industry....
. During 2009 many of the writers were receiving $0.01 per page view. Examiner.com later offered a variety of pay scale options to their writers. Examiner.com now bases compensation on variables such as subscriptions, page view traffic and session length.
The company has been criticized for the low compensation received by some contributors, although Examiner.com claims it communicates contributors should not consider this full-time employment, and "tries to be very clear and transparent that this isn't a 'quit your day job' opportunity.”
Criticism
Examiner.com has been criticized for its lack of verification and fact-checking of stories published on the site, including accusations of plagiarismPlagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
.