Oct. 26, 2006

By CAROLE TARRANT
Managing Editor
The Roanoke (Va.) Times

Eighteen months, at least.

That's how long Rob Curley figures it takes for an appreciable audience to build around something innovative online – something like the Studio 55 vodcast he launched earlier this year at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News.

Why so long?

Because it's unexpected.

"Most people don't think the local papers does this," said Curley, speaking Thursday afternoon during APME's "all digital" day.

Curley gave his time estimate after being asked how Studio 55 was faring in terms of online traffic. He did not cite specific numbers but said he left Naples (he's now a month into a new job at WashingtonPost.com) before seeing Studio 55 "catch on."

But he's confident it will, and confident in the future of video online.

In an earlier career stop at Lawrence.com, Curley saw video stories outperform text stories online.

For younger audiences, "video is their preferred way of getting content," he said.

Curley's session also offered a look at the "hyper-local" content that newspapers can provide – if they harness it in databases online. But how to populate those rich and time-consuming storehouses of data? Curley shed a little light in how he's managed it: "Keebler elves" was one explanation.

A better was "intern-ology."

He also offered ideas on bringing the print-oriented newsroom over to online. The first step is having commitment at the senior-most level of the newspaper: "The man or woman sitting in the glass office has to really care about online."

Money also helps. In Naples, he said, the new media staff had a $20,000 bonus pool that it could award print reporters who "went beyond the call of duty" in providing content to the Web site.

So what's next for Curley now that he's left Naples for D.C.? "I can't tell, it's a secret," he said, smiling. "But I guarantee that it tastes and smells" likes his previous efforts in Florida and Kansas.