Big innovation at small Vegas paper
Kent Chapline October 15th, 2008
Geneva Overholser over at OJR wrote a nice little post on the innovative spirit at the Las Vegas Sun, one of my favorite local sites in the country. The dead tree version of the Sun is a small paper. But the Sun’s site can go toe-to-toe with anybody. We’ve written before about some of the great things they do there–the design is clean and friendly, the weather section is great, their video is HD and downloadable, and have you seen the History of Vegas section? It’s fantastic.
The attitide that leads to this kind of innovation has to start at the top. And according to what the managing editor told Overholser, that’s how it is at the Sun. Their site is a great example of how the web levels the playing field for everybody: the size of your legacy operation doesn’t matter. Hire smart people, give them the right tools, and turn them loose–and your local site can run with anybody.
8 Comments Add your own
1. Gunner | October 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Only problem with that last line is, most newspapers don’t want to turn the web staff loose. They are afraid cool, fun stuff might get on the site (or worse, on the home page) instead of the everyday boring cop story.
2. Merrell | October 15th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Having Rob Curley on your side helps as well.
3. News | October 15th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Yeah, Curley. At least he got this one right- seen the Loudon County site?
4. ShowMeTheMoney | October 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
All this proves is that you can build something cool if you through a ton of money at a project. Very nice site to be sure, but they are going to have a real problem paying the bills in 2009.
5. David Johnson | October 15th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Gotta crow a little: one of my former students, Josh Williams, played a big role in the site revamp. He deserves the serious props for much of what you see and love.
6. Rodney Overton | October 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
“Hire smart people, give them the right tools, and turn them loose–and your local site can run with anybody.”
Nice…
But, is it making money?
I’m not sure Mr. Curley has ever had to do that — anywhere he has been.
In fact, he seems to leave just in time when the money would become an issue…
I would also agree with the above “Showmethemoney” — this really proves nothing. They just hired a bunch of people and poured money into it.
Certainly, you would expect good or better-than-average results.
If it was just easy as “hire smart people, build good tools and let them loose” wouldn’t EVERYONE just do that?
No, because that is NOT all it takes… In fact, the “tools” part of this has seemed to be the hardest part of all.
Sorry to dampen the spirit of irrational exuberance…
7. db | October 15th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Sure, it always comes down to money — if you aren’t generating a profit, it’s a hobby. Don’t underestimate the importance and difficulty of hiring a bunch of smart people, though. I’ll never forget what Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group, told Wired magazine a while ago when explaining how the record industry got squished by the Internet:
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So, yeah, generating a profit is the bottom-line, but don’t forget that you need to have the right people creating the right product first.
8. db | October 15th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
bah… here’s the quote:
Morris insists there wasn’t a thing he or anyone else could have done differently. “There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist,” Morris explains. “That’s a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn’t. They just didn’t know what to do. It’s like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?”
Personally, I would hire a vet. But to Morris, even that wasn’t an option. “We didn’t know who to hire,” he says, becoming more agitated. “I wouldn’t be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me.” Morris’ almost willful cluelessness is telling.
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