Rob Curley: reflections and lessons from WPNIs Loudoun hyperlocal project
The self-confessed internet nerd from Kansas reflects on the successes and failures of the hyperlocal project his team developed while he was head of online product development at Washington Post Newsweek International.
Curley and several of his team have now moved on to develop online sweetmeats for the Las Vagas Sun – but Curley responds to an WSJ article about his development of a hyperlocal site for an area of Virginia near Washington – LoudounExtra.com.
The article headline called the project a flop – something Curley rejects.
However, he’s in agreement with the general tone on the piece, saying that the problems with the site were ‘poor integration of the site with washingtonpost.com and not enough outreach into the community’ but stands by the general aims and achievements of the site to connect to people on a local level as still being the primary focuses of newspaper websites.
Similar posts:
- Editor and Publisher: WPNI head quits, Post takes greater control over web elements
- Loudoun Independent: Washington Post pulling plug on hyperlocal site in Loudoun
- Local newspapers must ‘own’ local news, says Curley
- BBC Trust says news website must review fact checking procedure
- Triblocal.com expands sites and into print
Working in journalism and want to boost your digital skills? Questions about starting a news business online that you've been too afraid to ask?
August 18th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
[...] was quoted at the time as saying the site’s problems were poor integration with the Washington Post’s main site and ineffective outreach to the communit…, although he defended the principle of news sites targeting people on the local [...]