A stealth project called Pegasus News plans to launch a beta test in Dallas in late 2005 to distribute local news content and advertising via the web, e-newsletters, RSS feeds, a daily print edition, SMS messaging and other mediums, according to an inside source who contacted me.
The source currently runs a division of a major media company. Pegasus plans to follow this initial effort with local advertising-supported news sites in 25 major U.S. cities that have a monopoly newspaper.
The company recently launched a blog to diary the evolution of their concepts. On their blog, the company’s anonymous entrepreneurs say their key differentiators are:
While not a lot is known about Pegasus right now, they certainly talk big. In particular they seem to be openly targeting Belo’s newspaper group. Still, there are a few blog posts that point to what’s up their sleeves. Start with their core principles, elevator speech and a post entitled Volume I, Number I and subscribe to their RSS feed.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
