The Wall Street Journal has a piece on LoudounExtra.com, the hyperlocal piece Rob Curley and his team put together while at The Washington Post’s interactive subsidiary. WSJ calls the site a “flop” and talks at length about how Rob and his team failed to generate even the traffic they got in Lawrence, which has three times fewer residents than Loudoun County.
I have no idea why the site never generated the traffic numbers they were hoping for, but I definitely don’t believe this should be taken as an indication that hyperlocal is no longer a good strategy. But news organizations should also understand that hyperlocal is also not a magic bullet. There are many other factors at play when it comes to figuring out if one of the sites is going to succeed or not, and chances are no one — not even Rob F’ing Curley — has the midas touch to ensure every single project they work on is going to be a mega-hit.
One thing is for sure, though: sites can not continue to be successful simply by being LJWorld.com and Lawrence.com clones. Teams need to continue to innovate and come up with new and interesting ways to get the news in front of consumers. The biggest thing Lawrence.com did was something different. Lawrence.com has been basically exactly the same site since its inception in 2001. This was Rob’s vision, and it was executed very, very well. Since then, it has forged a plethora of clones across all sorts of markets — some successful, and some not. Seven years in Internet time is an eternity, and I don’t mind saying that because I know the guys working on Lawrence.com now understand it’s a project that drastically needs to redefine itself, and its place as one of the most innovative interactive news projects ever launched (I have it on good word that redefinition is coming in the relatively near future).
Bottom line? Being “hyperlocal” isn’t enough to get you anywhere, anymore. You need to be innovative and captivating. As much as I respect the team behind LoudounExtra.com, I’m not entirely sure it upped the ante any. Visit site »
Rob (who, by the way, says I called him a dick, when I never did any such thing — but now I think he’s sort of a dick for saying I called him a dick), and his team are leaving The Washington Post for The Las Vegas Sun, as many expected. Congrats and good luck, guys! Visit site »
“According to sources close the situation,” Rob may be planning to bolt from The Post and head to The Las Vegas Sun. Knowing a few people at the Sun, and knowing a bit about Rob (though I don’t really know him personally), I could see it happening — but who knows. Visit site »
Information design guru Edward Tufte takes the new WP site to task. I don’t read the Post enough to say whether its better or worse than the old one, but I do love the general point that Tufte makes. A lot of news sites, including the Post, are criticized for having a “cluttered” design. That’s because they do have a cluttered design. But, the best way to unclutter it is not necessarily to remove things. Rather,the first tactic should be to make that some resolution of information more palatable via design. It is, in essence, the difference between uncluttering your house by throwing things away and by installing open shelves that go from floor to ceiling. They both unclutter the space, but if you throw things away (or shove them deep into the bowels of a closet), then you no longer have (easy) access to them. Visit site »
The Post launches its first Ellington powered site (it has several Django-powered sites, but this is the first one to use the Django-based CMS we built here in Lawrence). Lookin’ good! Read all about it straight from the horse’s mouth. Visit site »
Adrian on his big grant, and what he’ll be doing with it. The project is called EveryBlock, and he will be leaving The Washington Post in order to make it happen. Awesome news. Congrats, Adrian! Visit site »
Programmers: here’s your chance to work with one of the leading innovators in the online news world. Visit site »
I’m a little late on this one, but I finally took a few minutes to really check out the first project Rob Curley’s team has done at The Post, and I found myself very into the stories. A very cool concept, some unique Flash UI work, and genuinely interesting and real people. I dig it. As with most Post projects, it’s Django-powered. Also see the related blog post from Curley. Visit site »
A nice profile on Adrian’s work, from Django and Ellington to ChicagoCrime.org to his project at The Washington Post. Visit site »
Awesome Flash-driven political game for election time. Wonderfully designed, and Django-powered, like most (all?) Washington Post interactive specials. Visit site »
Although World Online isn’t quite the same place it was when Rob was here in Lawrence, these core strategies still shape most of what we do here at my kick-ass day job. Visit site »