Politico owner to launch local Washington website

"This is an exciting moment for me personally," Allbritton wrote. "I grew up in Washington and in the media business. I see nothing but more change -- creative, vital and, yes, profitable -- in the years ahead."

The website, which has not yet been named, will merge the current WJLA.com and News8.net to focus wholly on local news, and will employ a start-up staff of more that 50 people. It has also been reported that the site will share content with two local television stations also owned by Allbritton.

The decision comes following the success of Politico, which launched three years ago and not only posted a profit this year, but now also has a larger presence in the White House than any other news outlet.

The popularity of its website, Politico.com, with about 6.7 million unique visitors per month, is undisputed, and Allbritton and Brady are seeking to replicate this with their new project: "The goal is to build a Web-based local news site that can become for local news what Politico's become for political junkies," said Brady.

"You need to be a first stop, because it's a complete report on what's happening locally. Whether it's something we produced, or something somebody else produced, this is your go-to place for local news.

"On top of that, you want to take advantage of technology that the Web offers in terms of delivering content to people that's geographically relevant," Brady said. "I think it's really taking full advantage of what digital journalism can be."

The new website comes during what seems to be a growing trend toward local news. Just yesterday it was announced that Patch would continue to expand it's community websites in New York State to include eleven new sites in Long Island and Westchester County- and earlier this month the Guardian revealed it was searching for local bloggers as part of its new 'Guardian Local'project.

The nature of the Internet has made it virtually impossible for publishers to charge for global news, as Alan Mutter has previously argued "such commoditized content as world, national, business, sports and entertainment news" is everywhere. For publishers to charge, their content needs to be (amongst other things) unique, targeted and local. Organisations need to be able to offer consumers something that they cannot find elsewhere, and it is for this that many are abandoning the traditional importance placed on global stories, and adapting their focus to hone in on the local.

As Allbritton himself notes : "This is an intensely competitive time in the news business, and as we all know and have experienced firsthand, some of the changes in traditional media have been tough. But this is also an intensely creative time in the media. This company's willingness to innovate and adapt has left us well-positioned to prosper in a new era.

Source : Politico, AFP, Huffington Post