There’s a lot to like and a lot to hate about Circa, the new company by Cheezburger Network and reality TV star Ben Huh and SocialThing and SimpleGeo co-founder Matt Galligan. It launches today and is on “a mission to fix journalism.” As with most things that aim to fix journalism and are run by people who aren’t journalists, I expect the press to have mixed views. I do as well.
But what it’s not is a copycat, a rehash, or derivative. People will compare it to things like Flipboard or Pulse, but Circa – love it or hate it – is trying to do something much different, much grander. Give Huh and Galligan credit for one thing: An original stab at the problem, not simply a prettier or more immediate way to display news on mobile devices. And it’s a solution they’ve been mulling for more than a year.