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Two case studies in hyperlocal
Posted By katie allison granju
Only a month or two ago, Washington Post new media guru Rob Curley came to UT and spoke to many of us involved in online journalism and blogging ventures here in Knoxville.
This weekend, the WSJ did a story on his just-announced departure from the Post, calling his signature project there, LoudonExtra a “flop.”
On his blog today, Curley responds with his own assessment of what went right and what went wrong in his time at the Post.
(I enjoy Curley’s blog, but find it odd that this blogger in particular doesn’t allow comments.)
Like everyone who saw his presentation here in Knoxville, I was blown away by Curley’s enthusiasm and energy, as well as his description of everything he planned to have up and running at LoudonExtra. And like everyone who watched the presentation who actually works in a real newsroom with reality-based resources (read: limited, very limited), I watched his presentation with some frustration, knowing that most of the things he was saying would happen with LoudonExtra were simply not possible for the rest of us. We just don’t have enough people, money, or hours in the day.
Apparently LoudonExtra.com failed to engage the community or build significant traffic, even with all the shiny, whiz-bang features it has. In his blog post, Curley admits that the community never really became attached to the site, even though the whole idea of hyperlocal programming is supposed to be community engagement and “return path” content.
I believe the key to a successful hyperlocal site is to do it the way Randy Neal does it with his staff of one. You can add the whiz-bang tech features when your revenue/traffic support them (such as Randy’s fantastic election database). Randy started with KnoxViews, and made it an exercise in very lightly moderated group blogging. Once KnoxViews became a must-read for folks around Knoxville, he added TennViews, BlountViews and RoaneViews. Each of these sites is built almost entirely on user-generated content, meaning community engagement is the pillar for the whole site, not something on which he tried to get buy-in after creating the site. His sites are truly about community - both online and on the streets - and the rest is gravy.
Make sense?
Randy’s success (I suspect his traffic numbers blow LoudonExtra out of the water) is even more impressive when you consider that he is an outspoken, opinionated progressive Democrat publishing in a conservative Republican region. Clearly, the man is doing something right.
Make your hyperlocal site the comfy couch of a town square (heh, heh), where folks sit around and whittle and talk to each other instead of making it the shiny new shopping mall which you then try to market to the locals.
That’s the ticket, I think.
Jun 9th, 2008
Katie, I responded here: http://caseypeters.com/2008/06/09/hyperlocal-gibberish-what-is-and-isnt-local/