This question aims at the idea that newspapers are in a unique place online. No other legacy medium publishes so many words and letters online (if you doubt words are the main way communication flows on the internet, take another look at your monitor). What other forms of publishing are tied to one place on the map? Yellow pages, local television (tv news and cable access), some magazines and local radio. Which of those forms is most capable of harnessing local communities? Well, that remains to be seen.

So here’s the question: How have online publishers innovated with local community?

There’s been some talk on the web about the failings of the article as the main way newspaper-dot-coms deliver information. There’s been some good talk about all the other things you can do with information than put it in a big blob of text.

Here are a few common instances where articles aren’t enough.

• Reviews. Music, restaurant, book, video game. Put ‘em in a database, don’t let that information go down the article-hole.
• Any type of Q&A-style column.
• Letters to the editor.
• The sports agate / stats.
• Profiles.
• Calendar listings (are newspaper-dot-coms still doing this? Yes, yes they are).
• Any type of story that runs in print on a regular or semi-regular basis.

If you’re interested in more reading on what more you can do with the information in articles, check out my “Structured Data” link-library on furl.net.