Local sites covering national events

Posted on August 3, 2007 by Melissa Worden

Ryan Sholin recently wrote about how niche coverage can help your site.

“Be specific,” he says.

And I agree. Finding that niche market will make your site invaluable to your readers.

So, then, how do you handle a national-interest story that may have nothing to do with your readers’ daily lives? The Minneapolis bridge collapse is a horrible tragedy and obviously an important story to cover (the Virgina Tech shootings, as well), but where should local news sites draw the line at how much they play up the coverage?

Yesterday afternoon, I took a quick glance at how some Florida news sites (at least 1,300 miles away) were covering the story. The St. Petersburg Times devoted the top half of their page to the event, complete with graphics, video and a condolence book. The Orlando Sentinel had similar coverage. What about smaller papers? Well, The Lakeland Ledger and The Bradenton Herald did the same, too. Most were reporting the latest developments of Wednesday night’s news, not even localizing the story.

This morning, they all still were reporting the Minneapolis event, but many have finally have added in the “could this happen in Florida” angle. By this afternoon, the news has moved to a smaller mention, if any, on the most of the fronts (but not all), which leads me to believe that the public isn’t interested in this story from their local paper.

On one hand, this kind of news coverage enables the country to rally together and sympathize with our fellow Americans during tragic events. On the other hand, news Web sites have to be careful not to pick up the bad habits 24-hour national cable TV stations, which, in my opinion, are guilty of overplaying stories for ratings and to fill news holes. In doing so, local news sites are not being specific and run a risk of devaluing their importance and expertise.

Why would readers go to a local site to read AP content they could find at any other site, especially when they could go to a national news site or — even better — the local paper of the city in which the event happened to get the most up-to-date news?

Are readers really going to go to a Florida or Arizona or Oregon news Web site to find out the latest about a bridge collapse in Minneapolis?

No. They’re smarter than that. And many, unfortunately, by day two have experienced story fatigue.

Give them the credit they deserve and provide them with the latest news in their community. That’s why they’re going to your local site.

OK, so back to multimedia storytelling … regardless of my critique on how the story is played, there’s some excellent coverage out there.

Going straight to the source, the Minneapolis papers got specific and obviously busted their butts publishing interactive content. They both have boxes highlighting all their multimedia content right on the homefronts.

>> StarTribune.com has video, audio and staff and user-submitted photos of the event.

>> TwinCities.com (Pioneer Press) has audio slideshows, video, photo galleries and a user-submitted photo page (although it doesn’t have many entries at this time)

>> Other papers are creating excellent packages, too. Danny Sanchez put together a helpful roundup of interactive coverage. And Mindy McAdams highlights some more samples and a New York Times piece .

Comments

3 Responses to “Local sites covering national events”

Patrick Beeson on August 3rd, 2007 7:21 pm

So, then, how do you handle a national-interest story that may have nothing to do with your readers’ daily lives?

You localize it, or you don’t touch it.

I completely agree with your thoughts on this topic. Nothing frustrates me more than to visit a local news site and see them trying to cover national (non-local) news using AP’s often pathetic wire content.

What these sites are also doing is training their users to go elsewhere for local news. They desperately need to start taking a long-term look at how the content they are presenting is interpreted by users.

The old line “we need to cover it because everyone else is covering it” doesn’t fly on the Web folks.

Local news sites don’t have the Page Rank to compete with the national sites on Google searches. And they certainly don’t have the skill to produce content as well either.

That is unless the news event is in their backyard (Roanoke.com covering the Tech shootings, etc).

OK, rant over.
Erin Bryce on August 4th, 2007 6:18 am

You hit on the very topic that is impacting traditional media companies today.
People want local news. Hyperlocal news. And, traditional news companies have never been good at that. It’s truly time to change our way of thinking.
Mindy McAdams on August 4th, 2007 8:50 am

I really liked the localized packages that were produced by the Miami Herald and the St. Pete Times. When I heard the news on TV Wednesday night, I first wondered “How many dead?” Then I wondered “How did it happen?” When it became clear that nothing hit the bridge, THEN I wondered about bridge safety NEAR ME. We have a lot of bridges here in Florida, and I ride over them often.

So I think the local angle — a review of local bridge safety — is a great response to an event like this one. It isn’t simply opportunistic. It actually connects with what the public is thinking and wondering about.