About

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Our name is Bloom Labs, but you can call us Bloom. We're a location-based platform for local news.

Our mission is to research, experiment, and implement new ways to inform and engage people with local news. We provide services for publishers to geotag stories to precise geographic locations, for readers to access news happening nearby, and for businesses to collaborate with newsrooms to improve access to local news.

Blooms are large groups of jellyfish that gather in a small area, for a limited time, to absorb nutrients from one another and their surroundings.

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Our Story

My brother and I founded Bloom to learn how online information could be communicated better locally in the real world between neighbors, tourists, or anyone. As a weekend project, we studied and experimented with ideas that closely connected people with conversations, advice, and emergencies.

In 2015, we narrowed in on local journalism's challenges knowing its critical impact in local communities. Despite the widespread problems facing local publishers today, we see great potential for local news and are determined to help them find ways to regain their stability.

- Stephen

Read our full story on Medium

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Stephen Jefferson

Founder

Stephen grew up just outside of Washington DC, working as a web developer and strategist for small businesses and non-profits throughout the region. In high school, he formed a non-profit to raise awareness for skateboard parks in northern Virginia.

Since then, he has contributed to various community-oriented projects and served as a fellow at Tow-Knight's Entrepreneurial Journalism program in NYC in 2016.

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Lilian Ting

Advisor

Lilian resides in Washington DC and serves as a business and financial advisor to Bloom Labs. Since 2018, she has provided her business expertise to assist various financial and contractual matters at Bloom. Her work ensures Bloom brings the utmost professional experience to our clients.

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Updates about the technology and research that makes Bloom Labs an innovative tool for journalism.

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