Local Web sites ‘network’ for war coverage

By MJ Bear |

The Internet was built on community. Remember when you first got online, so many years ago? How often did you connect with your geographic community? Not that popular, huh? So why would we focus on sites defined in real-world geographic terms? Mostly because the Web and the way we use it have matured since those early days of getting online at 14 baud.

It’s not just the fact that Nielsen/NetRatings statistics show the top-rated Web sites with audiences of 40 million to 50 million users a week. It’s not just that the average Web user spends 7½ hours online each week, visiting nearly 20 sites. And it’s certainly not that the technology is finally working, with most major sites being able to handle increased traffic the first few days of the war with Iraq.

It’s the fact that print and broadcast online, local news operations have matured into businesses that leverage all the resources available to them. They are creating useful, informative and relevant experiences for their communities.

A New Broadcast Network

Take WRC-TV, aka NBC4, the network owned and operated in Washington, D.C. The station’s Web site is run by the Internet Broadcasting Systems network, which is an online media company operating 64 local TV station sites. Traditional broadcast affiliate models don’t come into play with this network. The breakdown is purely by ownership, not primetime programming.

For media companies looking to leverage resources, the Internet allows and encourages these types of allegiances. IBS Founder and President Reid Johnson says most IBS stations have only one or two Web staffers onsite but rely on the 100 or so editorial people working for the network to help supplement local coverage. This model has become especially important for stations’ war coverage. “We have clearly seen two areas satisfying the editorial: local angle and deep background,” said Johnson.

For an international story on the scale of the war with Iraq, IBS can provide stations with extended coverage they can’t easily create on their own. That means local staffers can concentrate on local content. Johnson said, “What we’re finding in this first week of the conflict… is how the local stations are using the Web sites to tell the local angle of the conflict.” While IBS is one example of a new, strategic relationship formed to create better and deeper online content, it’s not the only example of a global approach.

AP Multimedia: Letting Local Do Local

At the Times Herald-Record, local coverage is mixed with Associated Press national and international features. While there are only two Web staffers at the New York Hudson Valley region’s site, online content coordinator Erik Gliedman believes using syndicated content is an effective way to serve the audience. “The multimedia content from AP is hard to find in a nice package anywhere else,” Gliedman said. “We really don’t have the manpower or resources to create multimedia packages like this in-house, so this is a big help for us.”

While users technically move off a local site to access the AP content; the navigation, look and feel is still in place. AP is providing a classic network service to its members. AP Digital Executive Producer Mark Cardwell believes it’s easier for the wire service to repackage photographs into multimedia slideshows and deliver them to hundreds of sites than to have hundreds of local producers repackaging the same pictures.

“We have the resources,” he said. “Members can cover their community and get their local angles and do things only they can do and let us do what we can do.”

Cardwell’s thinking is right on. He’s taking the classic network-affiliate syndication model and applying it online. The key to success is how local sites package the material with their original content.

Public Radio Experience

Mixing programming from a variety of sources has been happening on public radio sites for several years. National Public Radio and Public Interactive, a for-profit service provider for the public broadcasting online community, provide news resources and other services for local station sites.

Mixing the various resources helps local sites like WBUR.org create unique experiences, even with content that dozens of other stations use. Economies of scale like this will help the smaller local Web sites stay alive. They will be able to compete with fewer resources, but still provide comprehensive coverage for targeted audiences.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Extra help enables producers, like as those at STLtoday.com, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s online arm, to flex their creative muscles. The Internet team takes pictures sent back by Post-Dispatch photographer Andrew Cutraro and creates multimedia galleries. Prior to the war, journalists gathered audio postcards from soldiers in Kuwait. The online team, with nine staffers in all, combined the audio with pictures and biographical information to create unique, multimedia Web experiences for users. Improving usability is also important for sites. Kurt Greenbaum, STLtoday.com’s online news director, said his staff created a special gallery of Post-Dispatch correspondent Rob Harris’s reports because of user demand.

What Can the Big Sites Do?

This is an interactive map from the LA Times. Latimes.com users seem to be enjoying the array of interactive media on the site. For a big gun like the Los Angeles Times, satellite phones allow the transmission of multimedia content from the battlefield. Latimes.com not only takes content from its reporters in the field and the wire services around the globe, but the site staff also creates constantly updated portfolios of interactive elements. While the presentations can be labor intensive to create, the slide-shows are one of the most effective story-telling tools on the Web. Higher resolution images combined with natural sound and narration bring a story to life. Producers can deliver a common user experience rather than relying on each user to guess which button to push when.

Latimes.com’s assistant managing editor for multimedia, Joe Russin, said the Web often beats the paper by posting multimedia stories “well before newspaper publication.” The staff also thinks about usability and functionality. The interactive map for war coverage is one example of what Russin’s staff can create. It “allows us to post bulletins and short summaries of events wherever they take place. The map becomes the navigation tool, supplanting or replacing the traditional left rail list.”

Reconfiguring, retooling and repacking newspaper and broadcast content are ways local sites today distinguish themselves from the competition. Their use of and ability to incorporate content from a variety of sources is another important differential. What’s important about both approaches is that they ensure local sites focus on local content. They also help local Web staffers create more usable, engaging and comprehensive sites.

It’s heartening to see creativity emerging at all levels – from the smallest sites to the largest local conglomerates. We are witnessing a phenomenon: Audiences realizing that they have more online choices than ever, more ability to connect with their communities.

MJ Bear is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at American University and runs an online consulting firm, mjbear.com. She is a founding board member of the Online News Association and is the former Vice President for Online at NPR.