SAD so SAD

i meant the comments left at THEIR new web channel, not here at LR.

after reading your reply and then re-reading mine i can see it might have confused folks.

i’d suggest reading some of the comments over there yourself if you haven’t already. you might see the point i was trying to make.

I’ve lived in the Triad for years and know WFMY has some very bright people.

some of the criticisms seemed to me to be ones ONLY another beleagured tv person would make.

many had to do with the lack of legacy branding- to the general public who gives a WFUK?

Michael … I like the site. I like that they’ve unshackled themselves from their on-air brand because they might attract people that aren’t WFMY fans to their site. Plus, as its brand neutral it might attract more visitors from other stations, other regions, other markets.

I like that they have optional registration. They give you everything on the site except social networking features without having to register. But if you want to comment, blog, share multimedia, then you need to register. Seems reasonable.

I found the site relatively easy to navigate … however the casual user who doesn’t get paid to spend 40+ hours a week on the Internet may initially be confused, especially if they’re a regular WFMY website visitor and the new navigation system is different from the old system. There was a good amount of depth in the content and the variety was solid.

The social networking feature is solid and what makes it solid is the station talent’s buy-in … I saw anchors, reporters, photographers and producers all sharing blogs, pictures, videos and interacting with the community in the forums.

The branding … everyone has an opinion. My opinion is that they tried something new. Love it or hate it, you gotta give them some credit for breaking out of the standard ‘this is our news website’ mold and trying something different.

The smaller the market, the more impact those five or six fanboys or trolls will have on user content, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on the people.

But if you’re doing it just to do it, as a flavor of the month, “the GM saw this, thought it was cool and wants to do this… can you have it live by Friday?” …then its just going to get lost amid the din of all the social/UGC sites out there.

safran is much smarter than me, but here we agree…. more channels.

(click my name to go to the kark website…now known as arkansasmatters.com)

But other than that, Brink, you’re right; there are a million other sites that give people their say. Which is exactly why news sites have to make the same offer if they want to keep/grow their audiences.