“I think this is as much an experiment for the industry as it is for The Times. What we’d love to do is create a local package — if you will — that provides a platform, a business model ... ,” says Giordano. Between 2004 and 2009, more than 800 community-based news sites have been started, according to Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., The Ann Arbor News, the city’s daily since 1835, closed in July, while a hyperlocal news site run by a husband-and-wife team continues to be profi table there. Staffers of the Seattle Post Intelligencer and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News did not accept defeat earlier this year when the newspapers’ print editions closed. They have since started their own online versions of the publications.
“There are a lot of experiments going on with foundations and media organizations,” Giordano says. “Hopefully, we can contribute something to the conversation.”
Visit www.nytimes.com/marketing/ thelocal to see the work Giordano and her staff are producing.
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