1-11-12: Brewing Up a Business Plan

[audio http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wypr/local-wypr-999598.mp3]

Regular listeners know that Maryland Morning has a healthy respect for the Baltimore Brew.  There are some stories, such as the steel mill at Sparrows Point, that no one covers as deeply as Mark Reutter of the Brew–which is why we occasionally invite Mark to our studios to fill our listeners in on his reporting.

The Brew was created by publisher Fern Shen in 2009, a few years after she took a buyout from the Washington Post, as a haven for herself and other print journalists who love reporting, but no longer had a home to do it in a big news organization like the Baltimore Sun.

When we interviewed Fern about the new site almost three years ago, she said she was still working out the business model.  Now The Brew has a Kickstarter campaign going to raise some funds–a good time for us to check in on how that business model has evolved. Fern and Mark tell Sheilah about it this morning.