There’s nothing remarkable about the way they organize or present information on the site, but heck, does there need to be? They’re just starting. The one interesting bit: Their member profiles allow you to share how many children at home you have. I hope they do something non-ad-related with that information.

Mediafade writes an extremely cynical post about TribLocal, calling it “a disaster in the making” and “ill-conceived.” That feels unwarranted and premature … the only reason I saw to complain was the bevy of broken links on the site. Sure, it’s their first day, but it looks like there’s a fundamental problem with the way TribLocal’s CMS writes links on the “web root” level (Go to the home page, click “Learn More,” and try clicking the “share stories,” “post photos,” “post events,” “news,” “events,” “photos,” “how to use this site” links).

1. “Local” means it matters. Take advantage of it.
2. Newspapers harness and print tons of information. Do more with it.
3. There’s an amazing amount of information available in the community. It’s time to harness it, and then reward the community for participating.
4. If you’re not interacting with your audience, you’re not building much loyalty.
5. If you have an advertising-focused registration system, you’re not building much loyalty either.
6. The article is a decent way to tell a story on paper, but it falls way short online.
7. If a local tv news station’s web site gets more traffic than yours, you’ve got serious problems. Start building community now. Already building community? Start rewarding participation.
8. If your workflow still involves online employees cutting-and-pasting the night away, replicating work already done on the print side, that ain’t acceptable! Fix it! Now!
9. The longer you hang out with inadequate content management systems, the more you become like them. Inadequate.