I earlier reported that NowPublic had laid off most of its staff, and commented that the site could face closure.
The post was based on information from a well-placed and reliable source.
Since the post was published, NowPublic co-founder Len Brody has said that NowPublic is not shutting its doors.
In an exchange on Twitter, Len said: “Company is moving forward and working on the mandate we have been from day one.”
He explained that the layoffs were due to the sale to Examiner.com last September, but insisted “NowPublic is NOT closed.”
And co-founder Mike Tippett said in a Facebook status update that “reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.”
At the time that I reported the layoffs, I admitted that I had limited information.
But I decided this was important enough to publish, and the source was strong enough to raise doubts about NowPublic’s future.
The post sparked off a stream of tweets. The post, itself, never said that NowPublic was dead.
But looking back on it, the post have been written in a more measured way, attributing comments about the site’s future to the source of the information.
This also raises issues about how information is transmitted, and how it can get garbled in a real-time, networked media environment.
There are legitimate questions about NowPublic’s future with a greatly reduced dedicated staff.
I know both Len and Mike, and the people at NowPublic, and wish them all the best for the future.
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