Doing Local Right

Doing Local Right The Lawrence Journal-World Simon Willison - http://simonwillison.net/ 8th June, @media 2007

“Local”

Local Search Sucks

• How do I know if the results are comprehensive? • How do I know if the locations are accurate? • How do I know if the place has closed down?

What the hell does a Californian multinational know about my town?

Local ﬂavour matters • In London, people care about nearest tube station • In American cities, it’s all about blocks and intersections • In Oxford, it’s all about where I can park my bicycle

You can’t solve a local problem on a global scale

Meanwhile...

The decline of news

• Craigslist is destroying classiﬁed advertising revenue • Business models that rely on owning the only printing press in town are no longer relevant • News is becoming a commodity

• What’s the point of republishing wire stories when the Web has hyperlinks?

Old media blames new media

quot;If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how proﬁtable would Google be? Not very.quot; - Sam Zell, Chicago Tribune owner

Two problems • Good local sites need local knowledge • Newspapers are ﬁnding their old business models no longer work

What happens when you put a great web team together and get them to build sites for a local newspaper...

... in Kansas?

... Lawrence, Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas • Population: 80,098 • Newspaper: The Lawrence Journal-World • Circulation ~ 10,000 • Locally owned • Media monopoly (for about 50 miles²)

lawrence.com

ljworld.com

ljworld.com/marketplace

How do you do it? • Small, passionate team • “Wouldn’t it be cool if...” • Someone else to think about the money • Intern power! • Treat your data with respect

Use Django

The team

http://www.jeffcroft.com/ http://www.b-list.org/ http://www.jacobian.org/ http://postneo.com/ http://www.playgroundblues.com/ http://mintchaos.com/

Thank you!

kthxbye http://xkcd.com/c262.html

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Doing Local Right

by Simon Willison on Jun 09, 2007

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