Reasons for LoudounExtra's hyperlocal "flop"

Posted by Alisa Zykova on June 18, 2008 at 10:50 AM

A recent article by Russell Adams in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) attempts to identify the failures of the Washington Post's hyperlocal experiment, LoudounExtra.com, namely the failure to engage the community and the writers inability to cater to different audiences.

Loudounextra.com is one of the local sites that the WP offers, providing news, blogs, information about local events, a local guide and various deals. The site is also available for downloading onto mobile phones and iPods.

"LoudonExtra.com remains little more than a skeleton of the site its architects pledged to build," wrote Adams.

Adams discusses that the site deems local events like "high school proms" and "Little League" games as more newsworthy than events such as "where to build a hospital."

Tim Richardson, LoudounExtra.com's editor argued that they did immerse themselves in the community, but that more could have been done to promote the site and to link it to the Post.

Rob Curley, the site's architect, said that the "biggest problems with LoudounExtra.com were poor integration of the site with washingtonpost.com and not enough outreach into the community" and that both were his "fault".

See also: US: Poynter: Lessons to be learnt from Loudounextra.com

Source: robcurley.com through David Black