At the J-Lab Citizens Media Summit at the Online News Association conference, Steve Yelvington, VP of strategt and content for Morris Digital Works, says BlufftonToday free hyperlocal community newspaper – with a strong online component – is building a stronger community.
At the J-Lab Citizens Media Summit at the Online News Association conference, Steve Yelvington, VP of strategt and content for Morris Digital Works, says BlufftonToday free hyperlocal community newspaper – with a strong online component – is building a stronger community.
Everyone gets a blog, photo galleries, and social networking. They have 6,000 VOLUNTARY registrations in a community of 16,000. And about 79,000 unique visitors and 700,000 page views a month.
The best thing about BlufftonToday.com, he said, is that we barely miss a story. Editors might still need to follow-up, but our readers alert us to news.
Yelvington advises media sites to start with a clean slate, focus on human needs and “act like two guys in a garage.” If you hire a big company or act like one, the technology will be obsolete before you get to market. Thus, they used the open source Drupal CMS. Built the site in
six weeks – with not one meeting 
