CNNGo

Life in Asia is about to be enriched by CNNGo.com, a new local lifestyle and travel site from CNN. “A work still in progress,” as CNNGo’s Bangkok city editor Karla Cripps tells aB.com, is launching the Asia regional site covering the six city sites Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo on September 28th, 2009. Makes you wish to be in Asia, that’s right! Eat, drink, play, shop, sleep, it’s all in there.

Sneak peeks are available, but the curtain’s about to be raised anyway. Initially planned for a June launch and delayed again and again, the site’s editor-in-chief Andrew Demaria took a timeout for a careful preproduction and went for a late September start. An invitation email now promises: “CNNGo is the ultimate insider guide for Asia’s greatest cities. Set to be the definitive, indispensable city lifestyle resource, it harnesses the unrivalled experience, integrity and excellence of the CNN brand in a unique digital destination.”

Sounds like an addition to or even competitor of local blogs? Well, the whole site is a kind of blog. And bloggers will play an integral part within CNNGo. Each city has a dedicated “Local Blog Buzz” section pointing to the very best blogs locals and travelers should know about. All adding up to: “For the most discerning local, the cultural voyeur and the visitor (travelling for business or pleasure) alike, CNNGo compiles the best each city has to offer, often dishing up the unexpected and opening up these cities like never before.”

Me personally I think it’s exciting to see a colossus such as CNN doing some real footwork while aiming at the top of local culture, lifestyle, exquisity and, yes, curiosity. After the Asia launch an expansion of the project is planned to cover other major world regions and cities. And remember, you read it here first!

Now circle that launch day on your calendar and pre-bookmark the site. You may think you know everything about your city, but even the dedicated City Guides come in handy. Scrolling through CNNGo makes you feel like wanting to rediscover Asia’s metropolises anew.

The only major negative? CNNGo is strictly no politics. Lifestyle doesn’t mix with politics? That’s for the parent site only? I think lifestyle is very well an integral part of politics, and vice versa. Problem is, nothing in Thailand is understandable without involving politics. Maybe us politics junkies should just try to hang loose a little more. Why bother!

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Comments

10 Responses to “CNNGo”

whoopla on September 23rd, 2009 3.56 pm

Mainstreaming the indigenous. Dan, unless you are planning to mothball AB and get a job at CNN I don’t see how CNNGO benefits the local grassroots blogosphere apart from sucking its blood to “create” content for itself.
BangkokDan on September 23rd, 2009 4.03 pm

Who says aB.com is in there?!

Wouldn’t see any conflict anyway whoopla.

CNNGo is such an expensive operation a blogger can never compete with.

But good blogs may attract attention. Who knows. A reciprocal give and take. For the benefit of CNNGo and whoever blogs.

I’m also not aware of many purely lifestyle oriented blogs out here doing regular research on eat and drink and play and shop and sleep.

Bloggers keep to their niche, that’s what makes each blogger unique.

aB.com is lifestyle politics. CNNGo cannot do.

BangkokDan
whoopla on September 23rd, 2009 4.25 pm

OK, it’s still beta, I was “invited” to peek; but my guess is if you’re not Mr. Biggs you will not get much of a mention, blogs like AB that do an excellent job at covering lifestyle will have their hits diluted when the giants encroach.

There is a limit to how many stories can be generated out of Bangkok every day. I admire your faith in a free standing blogosphere that can enjoy a wide audience. Ever heard of corporate plagiarism?
Robin on September 23rd, 2009 11.08 pm

I’m sceptical like whoopla: How much of the coverage will rely on “real footwork” done by paid hacks, and how much will be ripped from existing blogs? I fear it CNNGo will be just more corporatised, watered-down noise … especially because the head honchos have decreed “no politics.” How honest can the reporting (however much or little real reporting CNNGo actually generates) be if content must be “sanitized” of anything remotely political?

I’ll stick with independent sites like yours, BangkokDan, thank you very much.
bosunj on September 24th, 2009 7.33 am

… it harnesses the unrivalled experience, integrity and excellence of the CNN brand …

Yeah, right. In CNN’s mind perhaps.
BangkokDan on September 25th, 2009 9.39 am

I’ve always been the optimist in the family.

Anyway, CNNGo is just too much different from the established blogosphere, I’d be surprised if they takes away hits from bloggers who cater for a completely different audience.

This if not desperately exclusive kind of lifestyle is not mine and probably not the one of many.

BangkokDan
whoopla on September 30th, 2009 4.35 pm

Give CNN a run for their money – and the Globe DOES politics:

http://sea-globe.com/index.php

(BD: Thanks for the link!)
stefan on October 10th, 2009 2.35 am

CNN’s entry into local MSM blogeditorial scene is definitely a gentrification of the blogosphere. Some of the old hands will get hand picked and showcased for their specialization, the rest will disappear in the digital dust, or find the next frontier, explore that and write about it, paving the way for the next CNN posting.
whoopla on October 10th, 2009 5.43 am

Open your eyes Dan, the Bangkok section of CNNGO looks just like your sidebar has been looking like in the recent months, even years. All the information is just-so-a-little-different, but same same. Someone should severely ground the author of “50 Reasons why Bangkok” for giving away all of Bangkok’s most sacred secrets in one foul swoop – and sold to CNN adds insult to injury – I hope he was well rewarded for that crime. Talk about homogenization of a city and culture! The next indie movie will be called Bangkok Pasteurized!
BangkokDan on October 10th, 2009 9.29 am

Thanks for your worries, but – to plagiarize Nobel laureate Obama – I don’t really deserve your worries.

I like the witty stuff and the topics’ angles on CNNGo – stuff I myself could hardly write. The site’s politically correct and cheerful and friendly. I’m not. Not always. So there we have a major first problem.

I actually met CNNGo’s editor-in-chief Andrew Demaria in April here in Bangkok when they were still in the baby stages.

They were looking for a Bangkok editor but it was obvious the very first minute that my own unimportant life is much too busy for the task.

The idea then was that I write a weekly society column for CNNGo, but again it soon was clear that I’m probably too noir and not enough mainstream and don’t really care about the high society people I would have to write about.

In Karla Cripps they found a most irresistible Bangkok editor, a perfect match for the site and don’t you ever tell Karla she’s not her own woman!

There’s hard work behind CNNGo and deservedly so the site offers more content than your average blog.

Seriously, there is so much room for better content around here, I’m an eager visitor of CNNGo. There’s stuff I wonder how they can even come up with.

It’s a tall order to produce enriching feature content of this type every day, even with paid staff and the backing of a conglomerate.

aB.com’s readership meanwhile is growing steadily and strongly

On Top 100 Thailand Blogs this silly little site is now ranked 3rd. And don’t forget that New Mandala, the leader, uses the domain/I.P. of a university’s server, so this tally actually counts all the visitors of its very domain. It’s safe to say that aB.com is indeed ranked 2nd which is not too shabby for two years of blogging

aB.com just survived a major hacker attack – maybe implying that there are jealous people out here – and I just keep on doing what I like to do and what I think makes sense to do. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

And keep on visiting CNNGo.

BangkokDan

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