SnipSnap, ElectNext, Cloudmine chosen for Philadelphia Media Network incubator

The Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano reports that the Philadelphia Media Network will welcome Cloudmine, ElectNext and SnipSnap as the three companies to be housed at the first Project Liberty incubator.

As we’ve reported, the incubator was one of the initial promises of then incoming CEO Greg Osberg in 2010. Philadelphia Network began accepting applications in October of 2011.

All three of the companies were in DreamIt’s Fall 2011 Philadelphia class will join PMN in its new Eighth and Market offices, and be offered Drexel interns. The incubator takes no equity in the companies, the only requirement is an agreement to develop products using PMN entities. For now, the incubator is slated for a 3:45pm ribbon cutting today on the fifth floor of 400 N. Broad, and there will be an open house next week there.

All three of the companies have obvious applications to the media industry:

SnipSnap – Led by former Gannett newspaper chain employee Ted Mann, SnipSnap helps users organize their coupons using an iPhone app. The newspaper industry still heavily relies on revenue from coupon placement and advertising inserts, the company says.

ElectNext – At several events this year, Founder Keya Dannenbaum said ElectNext, which we’ve covered extensively, would try and make widgets for media companies to augment election coverage. Fun Fact, ElectNext has been part of five incubators: BetaSpring, GoodCompany Ventures, DreamIt Ventures, Wharton’s VIP program and now Project Liberty.

CloudMine – The other half of Project Liberty, an Android tablet pre-loaded with the Inquirer, is a perfect testing ground for CloudMine’s mobile development platform.