Lon Seidman is the Co-Founder and CEO of LocalOnlineNews.TV, a web-based news content generation company that is filling the void left by shrinking regional newspapers. They cover local news and produce video stories that can be embedded in other sites. It’s an inventive model and the man behind it is equally interesting. Here’s a brief interview with some of his thoughts about Connecticut politics and technology trends. You can find out more about Lon and his venture at the following sites:
Lon Seidman
LocalOnlineNews.TV
As a businessman and political strategist, what is your impression of the state’s ethics laws? Do you think they impede business function or are the rules helping to reduce corruption in the state?
None of my businesses contract directly with the state or federal government so I can’t comment as to how those ethics rules directly impact small companies. I will say that looking at our ethics rules overall that many of the changes have added layers of accountability that were not there before. Those are good things, especially given the abuses that took place over the last decade.
I do hope the state will continue to embrace technology and centralize how it does business. Not only does a reduction of paperwork save an extraordinarily amount of taxpayer dollars, it also serves to create a more level playing field for smaller companies who may not have been aware of opportunities to do business with the state. Look what Google was able to build by designing a ’self-service’ advertising system that made it easy for both large and small businesses to do business with them.
Data centralization also makes it easier to find and track those who may be not acting in the best interest of taxpayers.
You have been involved extensively in local, state and Congressional campaigns. What new ground do you see being broken in campaign strategy or techniques that we can look for in 2010?
This answer largely depends on the outcome of a judge’s order last week declaring Connecticut’s public campaign financing system unconstitutional. It’s likely that the Citizens’ Election Program will be intact for 2010, but legislative action may be necessary to allow it to continue past that election.
If public financing remains intact for 2010 it will require candidates for governor to be more creative in how they get their message out. While the $3.25 million the party nominees for Governor each have to spend may seem like a lot, it falls short of the total needed to run a traditional statewide media campaign.
As a result we will see a number of new experiments into the realm of new media, but also a lot of old fashioned person-to-person campaigning to reach voters next year, especially in the gubernatorial race.
Do you think the campaign finance reform of recent years has been beneficial to the process or has it created a whole new set of problems? Will the legislature’s reduction of the fund due to the budget crisis set the reform effort back irrevocably?
I will say that for legislative races it has been very beneficial - especially for young candidates. A record number of people under 35 on both sides of the aisle were elected to the General Assembly in 2008. That’s the untold story of this reform measure and our state will be better off for it in the years to come.
2010 will be the real test of the new campaign finance system. It will be tested not only in its ability to meet the financial demands of the campaigns it supports, but also how it responds in the enforcement of statutes and regulations.
With so much at stake in the gubernatorial election (including some real questions as to whether Governor Rell plans to run again), many interest groups that are now barred from contributing directly to political campaigns will likely operate independent expenditure campaigns. The public financing law does not ban this activity, but may in some cases allocate additional public funds for candidates who are the subjects of their advocacy. Political party committees also have the ability to directly advocate for their candidates with funds separate from those a candidate receives from the Citizens Election Program.
All of this will keep the Election Enforcement Commission busy interpreting statute and making decisions to try and keep things as fair as possible - especially given the pending appeal of the recent judgement on the constitutionality of the program. There’s a lot at stake for the CEP in 2010.
You recently launched LocalOnlineNews.TV - a producer of online local news video content. What gave you this unique idea and how do you generate content for the site?
Earlier this year I watched my town lose three of the four sources that covered news in the community- two weekly papers and daily coverage from the Hartford Courant. The remaining weekly is a good paper, but the deadline schedule is such that getting information out rapidly to the community is challenging. What really frightened me is that a recent budget referendum result went completely unreported.
So I called up two friends, Steve Kapsinow and Anna Sava. Steve is an eleven year veteran of the online publishing industry, and Anna is an Emmy award winning television journalist. I told them of an idea I had for a professional video-based hyperlocal news organization and they both responded with such enthusiasm that we were literally shooting our first pilot stories in Guilford two weeks later.
What astounded us during that first experiment was how many people found the stories we produced just through word of mouth and Google searches. The three of us decided at that point to form a business and picked West Hartford as our first town to cover. We launched in May and we’ve had over 30,000 video plays since then.
Content is generated by one of our reporters who are ‘one person bands.’ They produce, shoot, and edit the stories they cover. Anna calls the shots on editorial decisions although most of the stories are sourced by the reporters themselves.
Electronic media has been a lifelong passion for me. Twenty years ago I hosted a public access television show at age 13. The following year I started up a computer bulletin board system that was linked via a 2400 baud modem to tens of thousands of other systems around the world through a hobbyist network known as FidoNet. Area residents would dial into my system and participate in online discussions with people all over the world. I also continued producing video content throughout high school, college, and in my political work.
Since I was in college during those boom Internet years from 94-98 I wasn’t able to start a venture at that point. Then of course the bottom dropped out of the entire online industry and I decided it was a better idea to focus on selling gloves in the family business after I graduated.
I did, however, make a promise to myself that if I sensed an online startup opportunity I would jump on it. And that’s what ultimately led to moving the idea for LocalOnlineNews.TV forward.
You have admitted your passion for technology and especially the newest gadget. What’s your latest obsession?
Video devices and video distribution technology are my obsession for obvious reasons. Faster computers, mass adoption of broadband Internet connections, and very cheap video hardware are leading this push. My iPhone is now able to shoot high quality full motion video and upload it to YouTube anywhere it has a signal. It’s absolutely revolutionary.
Also keep an eye on Canon and Nikon who are advancing digital imaging almost every six months. Both of their mid-range SLR digital still cameras now capture high definition video utilizing high quality interchangeable lenses. What that means is that just about anyone can now produce cinematic quality video for $1500-$3000 (it would require a $20,000+ camera to get the same output quality two years ago). The video interfaces are not yet as refined as a camcorder might be, but the output quality is absolutely stunning.
Later this winter a relatively new company called Red is about to roll out a low cost high definition camera that records at a resolution three times greater than any current HD television can display for a price that’s a fraction of other comparable pro gear.
I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
