KaKoo

Aug 09 2010

TBD.com Takes a Community-Driven Approach to Newsgathering

From the company that brought us Politico, a model for a local news site that fully integrates social media tools and community into the newsgathering process launches today: Washington, D.C.-based TBD.com.Although there are plenty of things that set TBD.com's model apart from other online-only local news sites, perhaps the most notable is its approach to community online and off. The site will not only produce original content, but more importantly will incorporate community content from a network of 127 local bloggers, launch with two mobile applications, will be heavily focused on community engagement and newsgathering through social tools like TwitterTwitter

and FoursquareFoursquare

, and will have the advantage of providing its audience with high-quality web video from two TV stations. The approach is one that fully integrates the community into a process they are already part of, whether news organizations acknowledge it or not. TBD is simply embracing the community.“We're not going to hover over it from a mountain shouting down the news of the day, but we're going to be in the thick of it, be a part of it,” said Jim Brady, general manager of TBD. Brady, who is the former Washingtonpost.com executive editor, speaks from experience -- experience of being frustrated about the lack of innovation and risk-taking in traditional media."There's a lot of risk in innovation, but there's no greater risk than continuing on the course that newspapers are on now," he said.As a result, the minds behind TBD.com are pulling together the trends in the news industry, and the lessons from their experience into its journalism process, perhaps offering a roadmap for other news startups to follow.

Social Tools and Community

Led by Community Engagement Director Steve Buttry, the site includes a community engagement team of experienced digital journalists. Buttry has said for the longest time that news organizations have not understood nor adapted to the fact that the community wants to take part in the story-creation process. "But they do, and we're enrolling them into the process," he said.The team not only plans to use social sites like Twitter to engage their audience, but also to take advantage of the streams to produce and complement the content on the site. Social Media Producer Mandy Jenkins said their dialogue with the community will be a very open one with crowdsourced stories, topic-based discussions and social streams that accompany stories. One of the prominent community features the site incorporates is called "Complete the Story," which prompts users to do just that, enabling readers to add missing pieces, like a fact or picture, to enhance the story.Before launching, the TBD began engaging the local community through Twitter, FacebookFacebook

, FlickrFlickr

and Foursquare, which showcases tips from its community of bloggers.

Location-based News

The site includes a "My Community" section, which provides users with a feed of content based on their specified location. It enables readers to customize the feed by specific categories and news topics. This also applies to the mobile experience.Instead of waiting to launch site to develop mobile applications, TBD is launching with both iPhone and AndroidAndroid

apps. Brady, who like Buttry has evangelized mobile for news, said it is essential to their process. Taking advantage of their in-house app developers, TBD developed applications that are not only useful for reading geotagged news specific to your location, but also for other utilities such as trip planning on the Metrorail and perusing local weather and traffic conditions. Users are also able to save the news for reading on the train even when they don't have service."We didn't want to make it just a mobile site," Brady said. He also noted the possibilities of using their development skills to build applications for local advertisers as a unique way of generating revenue.

Network of Community Blogs

Although the concept of linking out and aggregating content might be foreign to many local news sites, TBD is embracing the idea of covering what it covers best, while being a one-stop shop for finding all local news -- even if that means pointing readers to the competition. Much of these links will come from its community blog partners. TBD's community engagement team will watch the content from the network of blogs and surface the best content it is producing by featuring it on the site.TBD is not only entering a content partnership, but a business one; the blogs will be entered into TBD's ad network, taking 35% of the gross revenue. That's a win-win for both parties involved.

Video Content

The site includes video from two TV stations, one of which will be rebranded as TBD; the other is an ABC affiliate. The TV aspect will be a useful tool for not only cross-promotion of the website, but also for web video content, which readers continue to watch more of. Also, as mobile video consumptions grows, TBD's mobile applications could become great tools for watching location-based video on-the-go.

TBD's community and members in the media industry will watch closely as the site develops. The model certainly has all the right pieces, but the challenge will be for TBD to continue to innovate as consumption habits change and the media industry continues to evolve. Brady said the process certainly will not be a perfect one. "But everyone understands we're trying to find our way. Mistakes are things you learn from and failure is just part of the process," he said.Buttry shared the sentiment, adding, "You don't focus on saving journalism, you focus on doing good journalism."What do you think of this model for local journalism? Is there anything missing?

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