State of Local

Billionaire investor Phil Anschutz, the moneyman behind the Examiner newspapers, is making a big push into local news online.

Anschutz, a sugar daddy for conservative Christian causes, created a media stir in 2004 when he bought the San Francisco Examiner and converted it into a free daily tabloid.

After his Clarity Media unit launched dead-tree freebies in Baltimore and Washington D.C. and locked up the Examiner brand name in cities across the county, some industry observers wondered if Anschutz aimed to remake the print media landscape in his image.

But it’s become clear the Examiner empire’s real focus is digital local news. Examiner.com has launched sites in 59 cities and hired former AOL executive Michael Sherrod as CEO of its internet operations. More tellingly, Examiner.com is hiring “city editors” in some of the markets to produce local content and cultivate a network of homegrown contributors.

In its job postings, Examiner.com proclaims, “We are not another online newspaper.” Instead, the ad states, the Examiner is “re-creating online news venues from the ground up — in terms of both technology and content delivery — to establish a national brand that is the destination of choice for local information.”

Examiner sites in San Francisco, Washington and Baltimore feature original content produced by the print staff. In other cities, users can read local AP wire stories without leaving the site. Visitors also get a compendium of headline links from the market’s major newspapers and TV stations.

The local Examiner sites (see Twin Cities version here) also feature a host of classified verticals – jobs, auto and home. The homepages have the usual complement of ads, including banners and skyscraper boxes.

So far, that’s a fairly generic approach in the local space. But the backbone for a robust local presence is in place. The local Examiner sites offer a commenting function, a story-ranking feature and a “My News” option that lets users save stories on a personal page. Sites in the print-edition cities provide widgets that let bloggers and others embed Examiner feeds, a feature that presumably will expand to the other cities sometime soon.

Things should get more interesting as Examiner brings more of the local producers on board. The job posting says city editors will “build Examiner.com by recruiting and managing a team of local content contributors.” Editors will get a base salary and bonuses tied to traffic.

Of course, there are competitors already trying to hone this model. YourHub is a hyper-local operation in eight states that relies on local producers and user-generated content. Outside.in and YourStreet are local news aggregators and neighborhood chat houses. EveryBlock aims to go even deeper, folding in restaurant inspections, crime stats and building permits.

Traditional media firms are making their move, too. Check out WCAU-TV’s DigPhilly and the Chicago Tribune’s triblocal. Also defending their turf are homegrown operators like MNspeak, Pegasus News and Crosscut Seattle, which compile local blogs, aggregate traditional media, produce their own content and host forums.

Does the Examiner endeavor stand a chance in the local space? They sure are giving it a serious go. And they’ve got an awfully loaded backer in Anschutz.