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

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