The CAJ Innovate conference kicked off with a keynote by Jim Brady. He is the president of digital strategy at Allbritton Communications (owners of Politico.com) and the former executive editor of WashingtonPost.com.
His theme was the potential of local news. He argued that in the early days of news online, many local newspaper sites were tempted by big waves of traffic from viral engines, picking up a national or international audience.
“We were doing things to attract the wrong audience and ignoring the audience in our backyard,” he said.
He described this as a drift away from local news, even in terms of advertising by seeking national rather than local ads.
For example, he cited examples of how metropolitan newspapers tended to focus on national news, rather than providing a local perspective on a national issue.
He talked about the new challenges facing newspaper sections, such as travel. He argued that there was bound to be a better site focused just on travel than the general coverage provided by a newspaper travel supplement.
Brady recalled that when he left, 85% of unique visitors were from outside Washington DC. But the “dirty secret”, he said, was that 15% of visitors who were local drove 35%-40% of page views and the revenue.
This, he said, spurred his interest in local news and the potential to reinvent how local can work both from a journalism and business perspective.
He recalled a journalist describing web journalism like Vietnam – everyone feels they need to be there but don’t know how to win.
Brady explained his decision to take on a project like a new local website for DC. Part of the appeal was running a news organisation focused on the web, rather than viewing the website “as a second-class citizen”.
He argued there was an opportunity for working with Allbritton’s local TV stations. In his experience cross-promotion of web and newspaper doesn’t work. But TV and web does, as many people watch TV with a laptop.
Brady provided some details about the local DC venture. He didn’t want to do the site piecemeal, such as by just hiring a handful of reporters.
So he will have a newsroom of 35-40 out of a staff of around 50 people. This will combine reporters, but also journalists focused on social media and reaching out to the community and encourage contributions.
“To win big, you have to bet big,” he argued.
His editorial strategy will to focus on “the things that matter to people”, such as crime, real estate and more, rather than trying to cover everything.
“We are going to pick certain regions and cover them like crazy,” he said, realising that he could not compete with the Washington Post in comprehensive coverage of DC.
The content will be geo-coded to offer customised news based on where people live and work, rather than dump everything on the homepage and leave it to the audience to sort it out.
The site will also aggregate news as people want a range of sources. This would, for example, mean linking to a Washington Post story from the homepage if it has a major story.
He wants to create a network of citizen contributors and promote their content on the home page, rather than pigeonhole “amateur” journalism.
The new venture will also have a focus on mobile, but with a local focus to deliver targeted alerts, both editorial and advertising.
In terms of revenue, Brady said there would not be one solution. Rather he will explore things like advertiser blogs, clearly labeled as such and offered at a premium.
Other commercial strategies involve helping small businesses go online by providing a local advertising service.
Brady summarised by saying he will try things both on the editorial and business side.
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