Grassroots Web concept branching out

By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor

YourHub.com may be coming to a Web site near you.

More than a dozen newspapers, ranging from The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel to those operated by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, have signed up to begin offering the Web-to-print grassroots journalism platform since the Denver Newspaper Agency began syndicating the concept earlier this year.

The initiative, introduced last May, is produced by the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News and is promoted and printed by the DNA, which also publishes The Denver Post. In Denver, YourHub.com spans 42 Web sites and 15 zoned weekly print sections that cover specific communities in the Mile High City’s metropolitan area (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2005).

Jack Lail, managing editor for multimedia at The News-Sentinel, said YourHub.com has yielded positive results since the newspaper launched the service last year prior to DNA’s syndication.

“We have had 2,715 stories posted, 1,305 events posted and 112 blog entries, he said, adding that the newspaper (Monday-Friday, 115,123; Saturday, 128,441; Sunday, 150,416) has more than 1,000 registered users and averages more than 60,000 page views each month.

The News-Sentinel is printing three zoned sections for home delivery and produces 21 Web sites covering specific Knoxville neighborhoods.

The paper’s YourHub.com staff consists of one editor, four reporters and an online producer. Their job is to help supplement the Web site by covering specific YourHub.com communities.

In addition to The News-Sentinel and LANG, other papers set to launch YourHub.com include Scripps Treasure Coast Newspaper Group in Florida, Alameda Newspaper Group in northern California, the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail, Wichita Falls (Texas) Times Record News, Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times and the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.

Spiraling interest

Fran Wills, DNA’s vice president of interactive and product development, said that the agency opted to syndicate YourHub.Com after receiving inquiries from other newspapers that were interested in the Rocky Mountain News’ initiative.

Key features in the YourHub.com syndication launch kit include content publishing and hosting software as well as strategies for marketing, editorial and sales, Wills said.

Optional features, such as converting the Web content to print format, and online classified ad posting, are also available. The software was developed by DNA in conjunction with Denver-based Indigo Group Inc. DNA charges newspapers that syndicate YourHub.com a one-time setup fee of between $2,000 and $10,000 and a recurring monthly license fee of between $250 and $5,000, depending upon market size.

Although DNA provides the software and print interfaces, each newspaper is responsible for managing its own content and marketing.

Since its Denver launch last year, YourHub.com reported an average of 309,000 page views and more than 45,000 unique visitors per month, according to John Temple, editor, publisher and president of the News.

Moreover, the site generated more than $5 million in annual revenues for DNA, with 40 percent to 50 percent of advertisers representing new business for the agency.

The print sections are produced every Thursday by the News and delivered by the DNA to both News and Post subscribers.

“We receive more than 800 stories a week from parents, grandparents, professionals, public information officers, churches, town officials, business owners and others,” said Temple, about YourHub.com’s success. More than 400 events are posted on the offering’s various Web sites each week.

“We have done extensive outreach to the community and it has paid off,” he said.

Temple said that one of the lessons he and the staff at YourHub.com learned from the concept’s launch is that it takes time for newspapers to encourage community participation.

“It is more important to have a good relationship with the community than to have ‘bells and whistles’ on your site,” he said. “It is important that the community knows you really are local and that there are faces behind the Web site.”

At the same time, Temple said he has learned that citizen journalism can be a bit messy at times and that the concept has to be continually tweaked as it goes along.

To that end, Temple said YourHub.com has added blogging, personal profiles, comments and a mechanism through which users can rate stories. A yellow pages directory has also been added.

“The community is defining YourHub.com and what it looks like today may not be what it looks like next year,” he said. “As more people begin to understand the concept, there will be a bigger demand for sites such as ours,” he said.

Temple said YourHub.com thus far has successfully avoided the pitfalls that afflicted such comparable efforts as the Los Angeles Times’ wikitorial project that was launched and subsequently pulled because of obscene postings.

“We have 26 eyes on the Web page, a profanity filter and communities who self-police the sites,” Temple said. “We have an objectionable content button that notifies staff. We haven’t had a problem with objectionable postings.”

Citizen journalism pubs rolling off the presses

It’s becoming more commonplace for newspapers to produce special sections from citizen-generated online content.

Case in point, the Daily Herald In suburban Chicago, which in February launched Beep, a Web site geared to 21-to-34-year-old readers, according to editor Kurt Gessler. A print counterpart to Beep will debut later this spring.

“To do this, we’re creating a Web-to-print product focusing on news, entertainment and features, with a special emphasis on interactive elements like blogs, polls and a message board system,” he said. “Plus, our users can directly take part in the reporting process, from eating/drinking with us for reviews to serving as sources and even reporters on stories.”

Unlike some other online-to-print entities, Gessler said that the Herald will not zone Beep into special sections.

“For our users, we want to bring the scattered burbs together, not split them,” he said. “People constantly say they are bored, many of whom don’t realize all the things available within five miles of where they live.”

Gessler said that there is no downside to actively engaging readers to produce content for the community.

“This generation (of readers) has grown up not only participating on message boards but also running sites, defining what news is, what it means,” he said. “The biggest challenge I see is if, in this era of media specialization, a publication like Beep is focused enough.”

Beep is one of a growing number of so-called citizen journalism Web/print efforts. Among them:

*Northwest Voice: A free community publication published by The Bakersfield Californian that is delivered to more than 24,000 homes in northwest Bakersfield every other Thursday.

*Neighbors: A weekly, user-created neighborhood-oriented publication distributed by The Dallas Morning News.

*Bluffton Today: A free daily newspaper in Bluffton, S.C., which sports a mix of articles from news staff and online contributors.