McClatchy's Triangle

Take a look at some of the local sites that McClatchy is starting to roll out and essentially you'll see that they're a Craigslist meets CitySearch-like service, behind a Google-like façade. To illustrate Christian Hendricks' localized Internet strategy, have a look at the first search site McClatchy launched last quarter. It's called Triangle.com and it focuses on communities served by McClatchy papers in North Carolina. As Greg Sterling, an expert on local advertising, said to me in an email: "McClatchy seems to 'get it' more than others."

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Comments

[Greg Sterling]

McClatchy seems to "get it" more than most newspaper companies (e.g., Sacramento.com). Similarly, I think that Triangle.com represents the direction that newspapers must go to broaden their appeal and better monetize their traffic.

I had previously believed that newspapers needed to leverage their brands online and radically redesign their sites, but that's "culturally" impossible. I'm now of the view that new online brands allow newspapers to transcend their traditional thinking about online and capture more local traffic and usage.

The culture of newspapers all but requires new brands to enable them to experiment and try new strategies. These new brands then become traffic drivers to newspaper content and advertisers in addition to their "conventional" newspaper sites.

[Walter Rinebold]

Bambi Francisco, I think if you check out ShopNTown.com you will find that not only are they ahead of the industry, (even though they are still under construction) they have recently been granted a patent in local that most companys could control the industry with.

[Ross Bradley]

Hi Bambi ....

Great column today (as always) and congrats on your own effort, for Lent.

Bambi, (although I am just a little biased) I do see LOOKSMART having an involvement with some of the publisher/media Co's you have mentioned. I pointed out previously (with a suggested "FindArticles on Bicycles" search on Google) that a Looksmart Vertical could provide you with, the information you required.

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=FindArticles+on+Bicycles&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

The following 2 Links are to the "rough & tumble" of the Looksmart Yahoo stocks message board. They fully explain why I feel strongly about my Looksmart involvement beliefs .... Please read (only) these two ...(it is a pretty "torrid" board, these days) - Thanks.

http://finance.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=22689351&tid=look&sid=22689351&mid=157492

http://finance.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=22689351&tid=look&sid=22689351&mid=157493

Of course, they are only an opinion. And we all have one to express. I ENJOY READING YOURS!

Ross Bradley