Inquirer business columnist Joseph N. DiStefano on Philly tech [Friday Q&A]

With the pressure of updating a daily news blog in addition to his regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Joseph N. DiStefano says that the biggest change over the last few years in the newspaper offices at 400 N. Broad is acceleration.

“It’s a lot easier to get a hold of key documents and get answers to a lot of basic questions online,” says DiStefano, who pens the Inky’s PhillyDeals column.

“But reporting is reporting. News is information that someone else wants to suppress.”

DiStefano has the gruff exterior one might expect of a veteran newspaper columnist who writes hard news about regional business.

“I used to tell CEOs that if you’re indicted, I will cheerfully write that story on page one. Not to celebrate indictment, but because we have the space there,” he says. “It’s an adversarial role.”

Since 2007, DiStefano’s distinct attitude has been on display in that column, which covers a broad range of business topics, including development and real estate, finance and Philadelphia’s technology community.

DiStefano, who grew up on the Main Line, has been in the reporting business since 1988, when he was looking for a steady line of work after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics and U.S. history.

He’s gone on to report finance at Bloomberg and in 2005, published Comcasted, about Comcast’s cable strategy, all while he and his wife were raising six kids.

After the jump, we ask to borrow DiStefano’s crib notes for business and technology reporting in Philadelphia.

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Greg Osberg: one year since takeover, Philadelphia newspapers are stronger, technology initiatives succeeding

Thirteen months since being named publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Media Network, Greg Osberg addressed the local Online News Association chapter Wednesday, updating the industry on the company’s direction.

The first half of that year was focused on stabilizing the core print products — the Inquirer and the Daily News — and the second half featured a flurry of technology-infused initiatives meant to begin reshaping the legacy news operation. Those latter initiatives largely fit under the Project Liberty umbrella, which include the much hyped Android tablet project and the incubation program.

The event, which was part of the local ONA’s monthly meetups and was held at the Inquirer building, featured a short speech and Q&A session with Osberg. [Full disclosure: This reporter is involved in the local ONA group.]

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Poptent: videographer social network with Conshohocken office expands, is hiring [VIDEO]

For those who gauge startup success by ‘traction,’ Mark Schoneveld says Poptent might be the region’s biggest web 2.0 success story.

Poptent, which hosts contests for brands for its community of video creators to make viral marketing videos, has continued to grow since launching in 2007, welcoming new users and bigger companies. It is hiring in Conshohocken, including engineers and social media savvy community leaders, and, adds Poptent Director of Community Schoneveld, the company has reached a positive cash flow, is now up to 40,000 registered users and is about to cross $3 million in creator payouts.

“What we started doing was totally experimental. Brands were getting used to crowd sourcing and giving up control,” said Schoneveld. “We’ve been at the forefront of crowdsourcing for years and now we’re taking it new places.”

The company takes a fee from big brands — like Southwest Airlines, Netflix, Anheuser Busch, Quiznos and others — and negotiates a rate for commercial video production, putting the bid out to its open community or specific members.

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G-Town Radio community web broadcaster grows to 22 shows and a full-time hire

Last week, G-Town Radio, the upstart Germantown-based Internet radio station run by music and radio enthusiast Jim Bear announced that it’s picking up steam.

According to a news update announcing a $5,000 funding drive, in 2011, the organization was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status (hence, the drive), it launched its documentary project Sounds of Germantown and its looking to hire a full-time worker in 2012.

The organization also expanded programming and partnerships:

Every single candidate for City Council’s 8th district came in for interviews and we partnered with WHYY’s Newsworks to present and broadcast a debate between all seven democratic candidates. Our live programming also increased to twenty-two shows each week covering a broad array of topics from under exposed music to personal finance to social justice.

We’ve published a number of stories about the organization, but two profiles stand out: one published in May 2009, and a follow-on profile published a year later.

To donate, follow the instructions here.

Occupy Philly photoblog captures more than ’99 Faces, 99 Signs,’ from Michael Bixler

The local outpost of the Occupy movement, the wide-ranging, peaceful uprising turned tent city, has made fine use of the social web for connecting groups around the world. Most viscerally though, the weeks-long demonstration is captured by a sea of people and their signs — messages inscribed for a soundless moment.

Michael Bixler is seeking to bring those local moments back to the web, by way of his straight forward Tumblr 99 Faces, 99 Signs.

The Point Breeze freelance writer, photographer and videographer was motivated to capture Occupy Philly after he and his girlfriend visited the Wall Street demonstrations on their seventh day.

Now it’s gone much further than he had planned.

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This is Not a Cheesesteak: new Tumblr follows the worst cheesesteak variations

From Tumblr user anacrisi, and referenced on This is Not a Cheesesteak.

Cheesesteaks don’t have to be just another cliche we’re saddled with, says Michaelangelo Ilagan.

The SAP web designer and Geekadelphia contributor is embracing the 80-year-old native hoagie variation by chronicling how far, wide and wrongly it has spread. Meet This is Not a Cheesesteak, a Tumblr that Ilagan is curating to collect new takes on the steak sandwich standard that he considers an insult to our roots.

“Unlike Rocky, we’re not revering something fictional. @visitphilly called it ‘Cheesesteak Pride’ when they tweeted a link to my Tumblr,” said Ilagan, 27, who goes by Mikey Il. “Let’s make that a thing. The cheesesteak is 100 percent real and absolutely delicious when done right.”

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Eyes on the Street: new PlanPhilly blog on design, development and the built environment of Philadelphia launches

PlanPhilly, the built environment news site, has launched Eyes on the Street, a blog to serve as an extension of its coverage and aimed at offering shorter and more accessible coverage for casual readers.

Visit the blog at EyesOnTheStreet.com. Read the PlanPhilly announcement here.

PlanPhilly, funded largely by the William Penn Foundation and housed at the University of Pennsylvania’s civic action outpost PennPraxis, was launched in 2006 by former Inquirer Jersey editor Matt Golas, who has reigned since then as the site’s managing editor, and then PennPraxis staff Harris Steinberg and Michael Greenle.

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Philadelphia Media Network and Ben Franklin Technology Partners officially seeking startups for Project Liberty incubator

Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg announcing Project Liberty, which includes the incubation program and tablet initiative. Photo by Liliputing

There is real movement on the $250,000 startup incubator program which will be housed at a legacy newspaper company and supported by local and national organizations with stakes in entrepreneurship and new media.

According to a press release sent on Friday, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Philadelphia Media Network have announced that they are seeking applications from startups looking to be a part of the inaugural class working inside the partners’ Project Liberty incubator. The project has also includes a widely cited tablet program, announced by PMN CEO Greg Osberg as depicted above and detailed by tech news site Lilputing.

We first reported on the program last November, when Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg announced the program at a Temple journalism seminar. The incubator program was later formalized with a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation.

The program starts October 31. Those interested can apply here to Ben Franklin Technology Partners before noon on Friday, October 14th.

Hidden City Philadelphia launches daily news site

Hidden City Philadelphia, the festival celebrating “remarkable but obscured” heritage sites, has launched a daily news site dedicated to coverage of historical preservation in the region.

Hidden City Daily will feature content covering the developed world and architecture in Philadelphia. To launch, the site will have some two dozen contributors. It soft launched Friday.

VISIT THE SITE HERE.

Hidden City was a celebrated summer 2009 urban exploration art showcase, hosting fitting installations inside otherwise forgotten developed wonders, like Girard College’s Founders Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House. The second version of the festival is scheduled for 2013.

The initial festival was funded by the Knight Foundation and conceived by Thaddeus Squire, with whom Technically Philly spoke in June. Squire, aiming to stabilize and strengthen Hidden City, now a client of his CultureWorks program, said he hopes to build a community leading up to the next festival.

In a unique step forward for a nonprofit’s web presence, the editorial team playing the dominant site role. It’s a flip of the model. Think: instead of a news site like Technically Philly launching events, this is an event series launching a news site.

The site will work with the festival to bring in memberships and some advertising to fund the work.

Philadelphia Media Network Android tablet Arnova 10 G2 hands-on [VIDEO]

Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes the Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com, last night unveiled its Android-based tablet, the Arnova 10 G2, to a room full of partners at a cocktail party at 400 N. Broad, the Inquirer building.

It’s a remarkably quick turnaround since the company announced the decision to launch an Android device bundled with applications created for the company’s publications in July, as we reported. Philadelphia Media Network is the first in the country to launch a tablet that is bundled with newspaper subscriptions.

The device has a 10.1-inch capacitive screen and is running on a 1GHz Processor with 512MB RAM, standard fare in the tablet market. But it’s something new for the news business. Essentially, digital subscription sales helps subsidize the cost of the device.

Users can purchase a one-year subscription to the Inquirer and Daily News and receive the tablet for $285 or pay $339 for a two-year subscription. That makes it a sub-$150 tablet device, which beats the cost of an iPad (by $250 or more), but puts it on par with the competitively priced Kindle (starting at $139).

Video hands-on after the jump.

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