New Sidewire App Offers Up Key Insider Political Analysis

It can be hard at times during the non-stop 2016 coverage to find reliable, well-informed analysis of what’s actually going on inside the campaigns and the mood of the voters. This year has proven particularly volatile, with outsider candidates no one thought had any chance surge to the front of the pack. But it hasn’t been that big of a surprise to some of the early state insiders, on-the-ground reporters and veteran campaign operatives who are watching these campaigns up close. So now a news app/platform called Sidewire has formed to bring together those voices to add insight to the political chaos of 2016.

The news app’s main purpose focuses around providing an informed discussion and debate on the top political news stories. They’ve recruited over 100 newsmakers from around the country and from all partisan and nonpartisan backgrounds to offer up their takes on what’s driving the day’s news.

“Sidewire was built to cut through the noise and showcase the most important political news and what insiders are saying about it,” said Andy Bromberg, Sidewire CEO and co-founder. “By bringing together the people who participate in the news to share their insight, we are building a mobile application where people can go to know better, faster.”

Many of Iowa’s top insiders and respected voices have joined the service, and Sidewire has taken a particular interest in the first caucus state. Their kick-off launch party was held at the Des Moines Social Club on Thursday, bringing together many of their Iowa influencers and top political activists and staffers. Among several others, the Iowa commentators include Tim Hagle, Norm Sterzenbach, Craig Robinson, Tim Albrecht, Jeff Link, Sam Lau, Matt Strawn, Jimmy Centers and yours truly.

So what does Sidewire actually do? Basically, the app is an aggregator for all the leading political news stories of the day. Each story in the feed has a comments section with the insiders and newsmakers chiming in on their thoughts, some with links to analysis in stories they’ve written on the topic. So rather than search through all the opinion leaders on Twitter and various websites, you can find all of the serious, well-informed discussion in one place.

“We’ve worked hard to build tools to make it easier for the news community to come together to share, discuss and promote their stories,” said Tucker Bounds, Sidewire’s President and co-founder. “A product launch can feel like the end of a long process, but it’s really just the beginning of our work.”

Sidewire is based out of San Francisco and is headed up by Bounds and Bromberg, combining their innovations and experience in tech and politics. Bounds was John McCain’s national spokesman in 2008 and was Director of Corporate Communications at Facebook. Bromberg is a hard-working tech entrepreneur who studied Math and Computer Science at Stanford.

You can check out Sidewire here.

by Pat Rynard
Posted 9/20/15