The headlines about newsroom layoffs are grim. But the Las Vegas Sun has hired more than 40 staffers in the last year. Why? They decided to go big online.
“We launched the current version of our site Jan. 10, 2008, and before that it had been a pretty basic shovelware site maintained by our sister company Vegas.com,” Josh Williams, new media projects editor and operations manager, told Newspapers and Technology. “In 2007, the site felt very much like a college newspaper from 1997 or 1998; it felt dated, it had no rich media of any kind, nothing beyond the Sun’s 12 or 15 daily print articles.”
Part of the success, Williams told NewsAndTech, is that there’s a distinct purpose for the online and print editions. “What makes us stand out is that the print edition is crafted as a daily magazine about Las Vegas.”
That’s something I’ve read a fair bit about from George Sylvie and HI Chyi at University of Texas at Austin.
Not a surprise that Rob Curley is involved in this project.
This line from the article, though, is disapointing: Williams said site traffic has grown exponentially, although he declined to disclose specific figures.
- Web shines brightly on Las Vegas Sun, Newspapers and Technology, Jan. 2009