Online Coverage for Evacuees

Here's an interesting development from my former market in Southwest Florida.

Deborah Potter reports in her blog that staffers at the Naples Daily News were told last year they no longer work for a newspaper - they work for a dot.com. They see their site as a local wire service - knowing that when another hurricane threat comes, evacuees will be holed up in Orlando with their laptops, looking for information online.

That's what I was doing when I escaped the San Diego fires last week. I needed a one-stop shop for info that affected my neighborhood. Looks like they are set up to provide just that. And when those evacuees return, they're likely to be grateful and remain loyal to the "brand."

The Daily News, owned by E.W. Scripps Co. (HGTV, Food Network), has been a leader in multimedia content  thanks to online guru Rob Curley, self-described "Internet Punk." He made his mark transforming medium-sized newspapers into hyperlocal multimedia machines on the Internet. The Washington Post Group grabbed him up after he successfully reinvented the Daily News.

I also noticed that the Daily News has nabbed a popular former TV weather personality. Jim Syoen didn't renew his contract with the NBC affiliate this year - but it looks like he's got a new gig blogging and doing interactive weather for the paper (which clearly isn't a paper anymore). You go Jim! Are tuba vlogs and podcasts next?