I was delighted when Dan Pacheco approached me about Printcasting, the Knight News Challenge grant-winning project he was heading up with additional backing by the Bakersfield Californian. It was late summer, and I’d just left my position at a Boulder-based Drupal shop where, coincidentally, the Knight News Challenge Garage was one of the last designs I created before departing. I was striking out on my own again after a five year break from being my own boss. I felt an instant connection to Printcasting, and that connection grew as I learned more about it, no doubt due to Dan’s endless passion for journalistic innovation and the bottomless bucket of great ideas that is his brain. The potential was undeniable, and the concept appealed to me on a personal level, so I jumped at the chance to be involved. (Special thanks to Greg Knaddison and Ezra Gildesgame at www.growingventuresolutions.com for referring Dan to me.)

Lots more about Printcasting itself later in this article.

I was initially brought on as a creative… someone to develop the branding, make the site look good, and create the designs of the magazine templates… but that quickly expanded to include wireframes, user interface development, and a whole lot more. Along with Dan, rockstar developer Ron Robinson, and a Californian contingent who were already on board by the time I arrived, the team got down to the business of making Printcasting happen.

Phase I ended recently and we’re happily neck deep in Phase II. We’ve got an open beta launched at www.printcasting.com. Back in California, Mary Lou Fulton and Tom Webster are heading up marketing and community outreach.

We’ve got a boatload of improvements we’re implementing. The features, output, and user interface will be changing somewhat based on both our long-term, most-desired, originally-planned-for, and ever-expanding feature-set, as well as user feedback… the latter of course feeding the former.

But… what is Printcasting?

In short, Printcasting is a project that allows anyone to create a magazine. Go to the site, choose “Create a Magazine” and after choosing a topic (or topics) for your magazine and filling out a very short form, you choose your content from one (or any combination of) three sources: Blog feeds registered with Printcasting, your own existing blog feed, or your own brand new blog feed that you can create within Printcasting itself. Choose a template, customize it as you see fit, make a few more selections and *poof*, like magic, “Lefty Stitch: The magazine for left-handed cross-stitchers” (or whatever floats your boat) is done.

Depending on the settings you selected, this magazine might regenerate itself with the latest available content on a monthly basis, or perhaps you will receive an email letting you know as soon as new content is available, and you can pull the trigger on the creation of the magazine after your review.

But, this explanation really only scratches the surface.

Printcasting is also a great distribution channel for writers of every kind. Visitors can register as contributors using their own existing blog feed, or if they do not have a blog yet, they can create one right there on the spot. Registered feeds are categorized by the author, and go into pools of available content for publishers to choose from. When a publisher chooses and uses your content in their publication, you automatically get a piece of the publication’s revenue.

Revenue? Where does that come from?

The third role that a visitor to the site may choose is that of advertiser. Advertisers are hungry for relatively inexpensive, hyper-targeted, hyper-local advertising opportunities… in print, and Printcasting provides easy access to all four. Not only can a registered advertiser choose specific publications in which they would like to advertise, but they actually build their advertisement using simple tools right on the Printcasting site. Upload a photo (or choose from a library of images), type in some text. Done.

The beauty of the Printcasting project is that it brings together a perfect storm of interdependent players; The advertiser who wants to target a group of potential customers in the local area, the writer with great content who wants to generate some cash with their product, and the publisher who wants to service the fourth player in this scenario… the reader.

I love motorcycles. I live in northern Colorado. I don’t think there are currently any magazines devoted to motorcycling in northern Colorado, but I sure would read one if it existed. Maybe I’ll make that Printcast one day. I know my local bike shop would love to advertise in something as specialized as that… effectively advertising directly to their neighbors who ride motorcycles. I’m sure I know of more than a few destinations who cater to motorcyclists as well. There’s that great restaurant I always go to. The saloon. The hotel. I bet they’d keep a stack of them on a rack by the front door. Maybe I’d make a few bucks. Oh, and I’m a writer, too. Sometimes I blog about motorcycling in northern Colorado. Maybe I’ll register my own feed and make some additional money. Hey, this is exciting!

Think about the current state of the newspaper industry and the concept takes off in an entirely new direction. People still want print, and that’s never going to go away. (Please try to keep it clean as you respond to that sentence.)

I have to say, one of the things that I immediately found most compelling about Printcasting is the impact it may have on the dissemination of information in places where information dissemination is perhaps not so easy or straightforward. I just love that.

Oh, and did I mention that this will all eventually be available free of charge? This is an open source project, as mandated by the Knight Foundation, and we’re building it within the Drupal CMS.

“The democratization of print”, as Dan likes to say. I’m proud to be a small part of it.

It continues to be a pleasure to work on this Knight Foundation-funded project, and to work with the fine people at the Californian. Keep an eye on Printcasting.

Get involved at www.printcasting.com!