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

\"If all of the newspapers in
America did not allow Google
to steal their content, how
profitable would Google be?
Not very.\"
- 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

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