KarM sUMaL
Founder, Vancity Buzz
K arM sUMaL
Founder, Vancity Buzz
32 BCBusiness August 2014
People want engagement and we have to feed it.
The truth is we're all so connected these days but
at the same time disconnected, and that's why
Vancity Buzz is about connections. What's going
to save journalism? From the outside looking in,
what's going to save it is immediacy. Traditional
journalism has trouble connecting with a younger
audience. They've probably never picked up a
newspaper before. I used to read one all the time,
every day before school. We have these young
readers, people in their 20s, and we don't need to
chase them–that's what the other media is doing.
They're trying to gure out how to get young read-
ers; we already have them. What we want now is
to get the 35-to-50-year-olds. They used to read
newspapers and they don't anymore. We need to
give them something they are looking for—such as
what they can do around town this weekend—and
then something else they weren't expecting.
■
s
ix years ago, accountant Karm Sumal, 34, and his buddy
Manny Bahia, 29, were playing video games in the basement
when they decided they should try to gure out how to
make money o the Internet. Vancity Buzz, which focused
on hyper-local news, was born, and began churning out articles
that tell people where to get wa es on International
Wa e Day or during exam time, and where's the
best co ee shop that stays open 24 hours. Serious
journalism is in the plans —if they can get more
advertising and fund it. Sumal thinks he knows
what's going to keep journalism alive at a time
when the traditional media is losing its audience.
M Y B I g I D e a
Create journalism that
engages you literally at
every opportunity.
