Good afternoon,
Downtown Wilmington continues to fight off a past marked by negative attitudes of suburbanites, publicity over the city’s crime rate, a history of racial tensions, poverty and other factors.
The story of downtown’s turnaround is gaining traction, but a fixation on crime, tragedy and political discord continues.
The response is to push “positive news” about downtown. One example is the NewMarketWilm.com site which features a new story every week on downtown.
The site is listed as being powered by Wilmington Renaissance Corp., a private group that works on various initiatives in the city.
Wilmington’s new public access television operator, DETV has proclaimed a similar strategy.
A visit to the NewMarket site shows a selection of familiar stories, such as the opening of the DeCo food hall in the DuPont Building as well as lesser-known success stories in downtown such as Spaceboy Clothing.
The issue with such sites is familiar to those of us who strive to gain a foothold in the wild and wooly online world. Gaining critical mass is difficult.
In a world ruled by Google and Facebook, the algorithms sniff out sites that are more promotional in nature. In other words, it does not hurt to have stories that look at issues worth a closer look that may seem “negative.”
With that said, NewMarket is worth a look once a week. DETV is a work in progress with lots of moving parts and a less than positive story in the mainstream media (subscription required) over a lawsuit from the previous public access operator.
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