Good hyperlocal vs. bad

Amid a flurry of opinions about “hyperlocal” in recent days, Pat Thornton stepped up to compare some shoddy hyperlocal efforts (two sites from Gannett) with The Washington Post’s new LoudounExtra.com. He made some great points that I agree with wholeheartedly.

The Post put real journalism on LoudounExtra, while both of the Gannett sites are filled with fluff. …

That’s calling a spade a spade. I have been dismayed by a lot of newspapers’ sparse, sickly hyperlocal sites. The editors and publishers apparently think the audience is full of reptiles, slime molds, or maybe rocks — some combination of entities lacking human intelligence.

Jerseyshorenow.com has a restaurant guide, but when you search for food you often don’t get any more information than the restaurant’s name, address and number. The “details” link to get more information doesn’t work on any of the listings either (it produces an error).

In stark contract is LoudounExtra.com’s restaurant guide. You get all of that information plus hours of operation; price range; driving directions and a Google Map of the location; whether or not they accept credit cards, have a kids menu or wifi, to name some of the information. Plus, users can rate each restaurant on a myriad of factors and post comments. …

I’ve seen so-called restaurant guides like Jerseyshorenow.com’s at too many newspaper sites. They are completely useless. I have to wonder why a company wants to foist a useless product on its customers. Does the company think people like to waste their time? Does someone at the newspaper think a bad product enhances the newspaper’s reputation in the community?

Do you want to know how the Post created a successful site like LoudounExtra.com? They used a world-class CMS like Ellington, had a talented project manger like Rob Curley, staffed the site with real journalists to produce daily content, had talented programmers and designers to create a good looking and easy to use site and harnessed the power of internology to fill up several amazing databases. Yeah, it cost them a bit of money, but I guarantee you that LoudounExtra.com will make more money than morristownthisweek.com.

That’s the argument everyone needs to hear and repeat. It takes money to make money. Everyone knows that! If you invest smart, you get a good return. Invest poorly, and you lose your money.

While one newspaper is wasting the time of valuable staff people who are building and propping up a weak, shoddy site, another newspaper (or maybe another kind of company) might be spending more — but wasting less. Which site has a future?

Have the courage to call a spade a spade. Don’t complain that The Washington Post has more money than your newspaper. A big, fat, rich company owns your newspaper — and it could be investing in the future instead of making something useless.

In the software industry, there’s a saying: “They eat their own dog food.” It means the company actually uses the products it produces. Maybe this is a test that news organizations could adopt for hyperlocal.

I bet the Washington Post staffers who live in Loudoun County are using the LoudounExtra.com site. Not because they have to. Because it’s useful. Because it’s good.