The story in today’s WSJ about The Washington Post’s LoudonExtra.com site struck a chord with us.
Full disclosure: WashPo is a partner of ours and uses our BuzzMaps as part of their hyperlocal efforts. We have continually seen smart ideas from them and applaud them for being so forward-thinking. It is a bit harsh to claim that LoudonExtra is a “flop.” The days of hyperlocal are fast arriving and the winners will be those that innovate, and nobody in the traditional media world is innovating as much as our friends at the WashPo.
The article does raise a couple of interesting questions, worthy of discussion.
First, the WSJ observes that “Loudon County is a 520 square-mile area with seven towns whose residents share little else besides a county government.” This hits home on our belief at Outside.in that any effort to define “local” or a “local content product” by aggregating users into zipcodes, counties or other method misses the boat. Our users today are demanding more control over and personalization of their content. For example, I find myself subscribing more and more to discrete feeds and newsletters, instead of reading the full papers or sections. This is available for almost every vertical BUT local. There are some interesting examples, but nobody has really found what we call “the intersection of local and personalization.” This is what we are addressing with Radar — a customized view of your world, determined by your location, filtered by the places and interests that matter to you and only you.
Second, the amount of original content created for LoudonExtra.com means that there is a great cost associated with building and maintaining the site. We are huge fans of the incredible group of individuals blogging about their local communities. The quantity and quality of these hyperlocal bloggers is exploding, and their ability to cover more news and information at the hyperlocal level far outweighs that of a hand-picked, full-time “traditional” editorial team. We are tracking more than 140 discrete hyperlocal content sources in Chicago alone, for example. (Great examples of hyperlocal news coverage are here and here.)
The challenge is in how do you aggregate the incredible content and package it as something of value to the traditional media companies? And, how can you provide traffic back from the traditional media sites to these independent content creators so that everyone benefits?
Which leads to…
Third, I understand why the Post says that they don’t “want LoudounExtra.com or future hyperlocal sites to be too dependent on Washingtonpost.com for traffic.” But, we’re at a critical point for traditional news companies. They know that their model must change and the really smart ones know that hyperlocal is (at least one of) the answers. Technology advancements and consumer demand (see above) will only accelerate that shift. But, these companies do have a significant amount of traffic that they can funnel to their hyperlocal products. They can use the next period of time to show their readers the future, and build an audience at these properties. Their readers will love it, and over time they can shift resources towards the more scalable model of aggregating and adding value on top. Jeff Jarvis says “Cover what you do best. Link to the rest.” We agree.
Interested in hearing your comments on this story and the ongoing debate of hyperlocal and traditional media, so please post away!
Mark
