The Mark - Canada's Newspaper 2.0?

The Mark is a Toronto-based news portal that just launched a couple of weeks ago. It offers a mix of current events news/analysis along with independent insights/perspectives about all kinds of topics, including tech. I'd say it's Canada's version of the Huffington Post, but so far, it's not quite as cheeky or satirical. I very much like what I see so far, and perhaps this is a sign of what the future holds for the press.

Unlike most portals that aren't an extension of a newspaper, The Mark has the look and feel of a newspaper - which to me is a good thing. What I mean is that it has a healthy mix of straight up news reporting/analysis plus a strong contingent of opinion drawn from an extensive roster of thought leaders.

That works for me, since the opinion pieces must pass through editorial review - just like they would at a newspaper. Sorry if I seem to harp on this in my posts, but I think it matters. For the most part, I'm ok with blog posts from people I know and trust, but if you don't know the source, I'd say you'll put more stock their post if it runs on a site like this than if you just saw it on their personal blog. In my books, this goes a long way to producing and distributing the kind of content that people will pay money for, and I believe that's going to be the basis of Newspaper or Publishing 2.0.

With that said, here's my news. I've been added as a Contributor to The Mark, and my first piece is running now. The article is dated May 29, but wasn't actually posted to The Mark until Friday afternoon - I guess that's the price you pay for waiting to go through editorial reveiew! Anyhow, it's an updated version of a post that ran on my blog recently, and I'm happy to say that it required very little editorial tweaking. In the future I'll submit original content as topics come up, but will also adapt existing posts where it makes sense to publish them in The Mark.

So after you read my article, feel free to comment, and by all means explore the portal. It's still in Beta, so all feedback is welcome. I for one am glad to see The Mark come about, and hope it gets the traction they're expecting. It's too early to tell if this really is a 2.0-style template, but the pieces are there, and time will tell.