News-by-text service offers inside story before it hits the wires

Journalism graduate and politics geek Rebecca Harris has come up with a unique solution to a fragmented media market. Instead of hoping that readers would spot her writing in a sea of Facebook and Twitter content she decided to go back to tech basics.

Purple, which is in private beta, is a new app aimed at journalists who want to cultivate their personal brand (there’s no way of not making that sound like a bunch of buzzwords, sorry) and ideally already have a substantial online following.

Journalists and content creators can join Purple and then set a fee for subscribers who can text (old school SMS) and get replies. This way, if you know a reporter is going to be at a big public event, you can ask them what’s going on and get the inside story before it hits the website. Who knows, it might reinvigorate local news or gain traction for high profile reporters.

[ getpurple.io ]