New Social Media Network Backed by Washington Post

Following an invitation-based Alpha phase that started four months ago, socialmedian, a social media network, as its name also indicates, has launched today. Backed by the Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive and personal investments, the interactive news network aims at providing users with a news channel which can be designed after their own interests.

"Our hunch is that people with common topical interests can help each other filter and discover personally relevant news." says the official website. The founders came up with an intriguing question, meant to encourage people to contribute to the newly publicly launched news network: "What if, instead of just the media companies filtering the news, we could collectively filter the news for each other down to the specific topic level, for an infinite number of topics?"

Web 2.0, Web World and New Media are some of the topics where users can add pieces of information, creating genuine "news networks." Within the network, people can share their favorite news via RSS. The most interesting stories can be "clipped", namely tagged in order to become more visible on the web. Users are provided with personalized news feeds, depending on the news network they signed up for.

Everyone can choose one or more "newsmakers," who are persons who get to be known as reliable sources. Their virtual clients can have access to all the news they add, along with the materials they clip as being most interesting. As the creators of the project also underscore, this is a great opportunity for regular journalists to engage better with their audience.

"The name socialmedian itself represents what we believe to be the next evolution of media; as information becomes more universally accessible and people socially can create, share, and discuss it online, what we're witnessing is a massive democratization of information around the globe as people who share common interests can instantly become newsmakers for each other without any regard to political borders or boundaries." says Jason Goldberg, the founder of socialmedian.