Rural Newspaper Figures It Out And Says Oh Crap!

Sitting in a Starbucks in Norman, OK getting ready to be in a wedding tonight for two of my great friends (congrats Jen and Mark). Thought I would do a quick post about what happens when a newspaper simply does not get it and then suddenly realizes that they are in for some trouble.

With the pre-launch of Missouri.me moving along better than we could of expected we did have one very interesting incident in a small rural community in Missouri. Although I have not put out much detail on what we are up to it is an obvious thing that the core piece of our business is advertising for local businesses, we have quite a bit of focus on the small rural communities and the overall buzz created within the communities we have targeted thus far has been great and driven repeat traffic and from that additional leads (free business directory listings are a great lead source, remember that).

Well, in one particular community we were able to secure several ad spots within one week of launch (actually all front page ads are sold, the banners are being created as I type).  Along with that we were also able to secure business putting together an easy to use and functional site for the Osage County Missouri government.  Previously they had no way to put meeting notes, commission meetings, or any other items out to the public unfiltered.  For as long as news existed in the community it had only come from one source, the local newspaper. With the editorial control that a newspaper has the original story did not always come out in the same context it had originally occurred.  With the launch of Linn.Missouri.Me and the county government website that all changed.

Within a week of launch the county officials were posting unfiltered county commission meetings on the site which allowed the community to hear, for the first time, what was actually happening and what their elected officials were up to. Obviously there were people within the community that may not like this free sharing of info by the county, but to me I say more power to the county officials who are stand up enough to put out their unfiltered meetings for all to hear.

After the first week the owner and editor of the local newspaper showed up, with a lawyer, to protest the creation of the site and bash Linn.Missouri.me (and my company) stating that we were forcing people to buy ads and stating that it was not legal for the county to be sharing information freely.  They protested with completely unfounded and slanderous allegations which were easily shot down in the next county meeting by my business partner.  The newspaper had not "researched" their story before bashing us and in turn really caused an issue for themselves by reporting obviously slanderous and incorrect information in a recorded meeting (which was then posted on the county site).

So, based on this, suddenly the power of the web and unfiltered news could be seen, I have to think the first thing going through any rural newspapers mind when they see this happening is OH CRAP! Where did my POWER go!

Whats really great is the amount of traffic and buzz it created for what we are doing.

We are working with small businesses and communities throughout the state with feet on the street people, . There is alot more that we are doing than selling ads and I have a list of 32 items on my feature roadmap to be added to the community sites within the next few months. But even in pre-launch we have shown what bringing people together online can do.

Have I mentioned I have 24 states now:)