The Philadelphia Citizen Is Apparently Still A Thing

It’s been nearly a year since The Philadelphia Citizen debuted its website with a bruising eff-you to the local media establishment — but then not much happened. Larry Platt, the former Philly Mag editor and founder of the new effort, conducted some salons around town, but there was little sign an actual publication was emerging.

That’s changing. This video was just posted to Vimeo this morning:

And on Thursday, an unidentified writer posted a manifesto on the website:

It’s time for The Philadelphia Citizen: a non-profit, non-partisan media organization that will be owned by the citizens of Philadelphia (think: Green Bay Packers) with a dual mission: to provide deeply reported journalism that emphasizes solutions that can move our region forward, and to actively reignite citizenship in and around Philadelphia. It will identify our innovators, call out those who stand in the way of progress and shine a light on the next generation of Philly leadership – all while giving Philadelphians the interactive tools they need to become more involved, engaged citizens.

For months now, The Citizen has been hosting smart, curated events featuring emerging thought leaders interacting with a young, diverse, ultra-engaged audience. In the coming weeks, related content will be posted here and sent to our growing mailing list. By year’s end, we plan on launching an interactive website, the purpose of which is to mobilize an army of citizens to take their city back from the purveyors of the status quo.

It includes this not-at-all-creepy-and-Orwellian bit:

Members of The Philadelphia Citizen community will publicly swear an oath to “Stand for Philadelphia.” (See pledge here). The website will track in real time the number of converts to this heightened commitment to Philadelphia citizenship.

It’s going to be an interesting fall and winter on the Philly media scene, then, because BillyPenn.com will also be launching — with a somewhat similar aim of encouraging community involvement among its audience.

Who will will survive? Anybody? Everybody? Philadelphia Media Fight Club starts now.