My heart dropped a little bit when I read this at Rogue Columnist. It’s an opinion by Jon Talton on a recent WSJ piece on the so-called demise of LoudounExtra.com. HT to Pat and ehelm on Twitter.

Loudoun, which covers a small affluent Virginian community, is the hyperlocal Web brain child of the The Washington Post, and it’s not doing so well. From WSJ:

Almost a year later, however, the Web site is still searching for an audience. Its chief architect has left for another venture in Las Vegas, and his team went with him. And while Post executives say they remain committed to providing so-called hyperlocal news coverage, they are re-evaluating their approach.

Talton says:

This was sadly predictable, and indicative of the group-think that is causing newspapers to commit suicide.

So I’m sitting here thinking, dang, if my editors ever get a hold of this they’re going to think I’m a moron. In my practical capacity as a Web producer, I’m always chiding people for putting national stories on the front of the site. That’s about as far as this argument affects me, but underneath that is a big philosophical question about what is more important to my readers. The answer I always get is, “Hyperlocal!”

But what if I (and they) are wrong? Some national stories get big traffic on the site. Anything having to do with the presidential primaries inspires a debate, even if it’s Hillary speaking in Puerto Rico. Some local stories flop. You could attribute that to good vs. bad journalism, which the WSJ suggested:

…One reason: the team of outsiders didn’t do enough to familiarize itself with Loudoun County or engage its 270,000 residents.

But what if it’s more than bad journalism? Are we overlooking an obvious question? What if it’s good vs. bad content? In other words, what if your locality is boring? I mean, that’s why we run nation/international stories in the first place. They are more interesting than the softball game on the corner or the chess club tournament in the middle school gymnasium. Even our market studies show our online audience wants local stories the most, but they also want national stories.

Now, Talton (whom I’ve never read until today) seems generally cranky about new media in journalism, so that may have something to do with his distaste for “Web geek” control in newsrooms and new approaches like at Loudoun. I do appreciate another perspective, but I wish someone would get it right instead of finding someone else who did it wrong. I need some peace of mind here.