Custom Editions on a Shoestring

Mike Orren, president and publisher of Pegasus News

Orren shared his experience launching Pegasus News, a hyper-local news site in the Dallas area launched in December 2006. It is essentially a traditional daily newspaper but fully digital and embracing the advantages publishing exclusively online gives it. There are four keys to understanding Pegasus News, Orren said:

• “Pan-Local”: Pegasus News coined this term out of frustration with the current industry buzzword “hyper-local.” They problem they saw was that while neighborhood level content is valuable, there is only a finite number of people with enough interest to click on a second news source for “hyper-local” news. Pegasus News, rather, is adding that hyper-local content to the more general, “water cooler” content available from more traditional media. This is the corner-stone of their content philosophy.
• Source Agnostic: Pegasus News has a small staff. It doesn’t have the manpower or funds to always have a reporter on the street. Subsequently, besides its own, original content, it pursues stories, photos, and video from other providers. These come from a range of diverse sources, from user-contributed pieces to web sites like Flickr and YouTube. While the site is very transparent as to where its content comes from, it does not distinguish between them on the site. Regardless of the source, news is given the same “weight.”
• Database Driven: Everything on the site, from news stories to events to elections, Pegasus News asks how this material can fit in its database.
• Customized: The site can be customized for each individual user. This sort of customization is based strictly on what they are reading on the site. The site learns what a reader wants and selecting content that will appeal to them.

For advertisers, Orren said, Pegasus News offers what other newspapers offer. It has an audience. It has a geography. It has sections. Advertisers can be sold on readers, parts of town, and interests. It also has sub-sections. Niches can be more finely sliced. A Pegasus News strength is how much information they can offer on individual readers and their specific interests. The site’s Daily You personalization system is the mechanism that will allow them to cater to advertisers in that way.

Pegasus News is built around two pillars: News and Data. News is columns, blogs, and narrative text. Data brings things like happy hours and other information people can’t normally find. When people click on the site’s home page, 42 percent of them go straight to the databased content. It delivers 67 percent of the page views.

A specific news story has considerable databased information, including raw, searchable text, photographs, data and time, and author information. This level is not unheard of. Pegasus News also delivers very specific location information, allowing linking to specific neighborhood-based content. Editorial staff rate stories by importance, to ensure that significant stories are delivered to readers. Stories are linked to related organizations, people, and events. User comments also find their way into the database.

Using the database allows users to search for information deeper and deeper into the site. And as they do, the site is learning about them and their interests. All of this is appended to their visitor profile and will be used to further refine their experience the next time they log on.

Orren said that Pegasus News has four primary content sources:

• Hand-Touched Aggregation: The site does not indiscriminately pull content from RSS feeds and other aggregators. Staff picks and chooses stories that are interesting. They write a short lead-in and link to the original source. News already covered by other news sources are typically left to them,.
• Original Staff Content: Staff reports news stories as well. The focus is on topic not heavily covered by other news media.
• Content Partners: These are other content producers in the market looking to increase their audience and exposure. Among them are local group newspapers, suburban newspaper chains, and trusted individual bloggers. All of this content has the same, Pegasus News look and feel and links back to the original source.
• User-Generated Content: Orren said that anything local that passes the “smell test” they’ll run.

The Pegasus News model holds a lot of opportunity for advertisers. If you can customize content, you can customize advertising. Advertisers can reach specific audiences with their advertising. For example, readers can learn what the drink specials are on the way home are and what houses are for sale in their neighborhood.

Pegasus News has recently been bought by Fisher Communications. Looking ahead, this means the Pegasus News model will be rolled out to other cities and possibly licensed out as well.