New Free News Outlet in the Region

As I noted in a , I used to work as New Media Editor and Editorial Page Editor for the Courier-Post newspaper before I resigned in September. 

What I discovered after moving on was that I really enjoyed working for a general news site (as opposed to the very specific news I now do professionally.) 

That's why I started writing a blog for Haddonfield Patch. As a resident of the 08033 zip code, this was the logical place for me to satisfy my interest in doing some news-related writing.

(To be clear: I don't live in Haddonfield; I live down the hill in Barrington. The part of Barrington on this side of the White Horse Pike shares the 08033 zip code, so we get the Haddonfield Sun delivered to us in our mailboxes, we have Haddonfield mailing addresses, etc.)

While writing a few blog posts, I also started seeking out news about my town: Barrington. What I discovered was this: Because Barrington is a pretty small town (about 7,000 residents), none of the news outfits in the region consider it to be worth covering. 

When I worked at the Courier-Post, I shot several photo galleries of the town's Harvest Festival, fire truck parades, etc. These tended to generate more than 10,000 page views ... but that's about as far as the coverage went, unless there was a major incident.

I decided I should try to change this.

So I recently started the Barrington Bulletin. 

The Bulletin is my social media / new media experiment. It's not affiliated with any organizations (newspapers, the borough, etc.). It often does little more than offer links to news stories published elsewhere in the region (such as coverage of the recent attempted murder at the Road House).

But the Bulletin also offers some original writing I do from attending events, such as the school board meetings, along with pieces I put together based on information provided by others, such as details on restaurant inspections in Barrington that started from a database the county has on its site.

I like to think of the Bulletin as something of a little brother to Haddonfield Patch. It's off to the side and might offer some information about a nearby community that the busy folks running this site wouldn't be able to get to. It's also clear a number of Barrington residents moved out of the borough over the years, but stayed in Haddonfield or other South Jersey communities. Some of those folks might want to find out a little more about their hometown.

One of the experimental aspects of this project is that the Bulletin is run entirely on Facebook and Twitter (@NJBarrington). In other words: It's a labor of love and I'm not making a penny off of it.

Check it out if you have a chance.