This is the full text of the email correspondence between myself and Jim Brady in Washington about his decision to quit from TBD.com. Extracts from this appear in today’s Media Guardian post by me which you can read here.
1. The inevitable first question. Your surprise resignation from TBD. Could you explain a little more about the ‘stylistic differences’ which prompted your decision to leave?
The press on this was largely correct. Robert Allbritton wanted to shift away from some of the stuff I thought was most innovative — geo-coding of content, heavy use of aggregation, heavy use of social media, etc. — and put more toward original reporting. I’m all for more original reporting, but not at the expense of the strategic elements that I felt were a large part of the reason we’d been successful. We could not come to an agreement on how to move forward. Robert is the boss, and he needs someone in that position who agrees with his strategy. I obviously didn’t. As for stylistic differences, I think what he meant when he said that was he wanted me to do things I didn’t agree with, and I wouldn’t do them. I guess you can say both sides had a stubborn belief in what they thought was right, and neither was the type to back down.
2. What was the most difficult thing about setting up TBD and how did you overcome it/them?
Well, it was probably getting the Channel 7 folks to understand and support what it is TBD was doing on the web, and to be truthful, I don’t know that we ever did while I was there. I think, on the web side, everything went pretty smoothly — beyond coming up with a name. But I think the issue any web site faces when it’s connected to an existing legacy brand is the steely desire of some on the legacy side to preserve their own way of doing things, and by extension, their own existence. That’s a difficult battle to fight, since the legacy folks are entrenched, better-known than new folks coming into an organization and — not insignificantly — still working for the parts of the business that generate more of the revenue. Frankly, it’s a battle I’m not interested in fighting anymore. I want to be somewhere where everyone is pulling the same direction, a direction set clearly and uncompromisingly by senior management. That wasn’t the case with TBD and Channel 7. The former NewsChannel 8 TV folks that we inherited were a joy to work with: they bought into the concept, were willing to try new things and brought a lot of positive energy to the effort.
3. Why do you dislike the term ‘hyperlocal’ and what’s a better term?
It’s just one of those terms that means different things to different people, and is thus meaningless. I also think it’s a bit cursed, as is “there’s no business model for hyperlocal,” etc. I guess I’m not sure we need a name that encompasses the broad range of local efforts going on around the world. Trying to name it wastes time we should be using to build it.
4. What’s your proudest moment from the project?
Coverage of the Discovery Channel hostage situation on Sept. 1. That was the day we used the partnership with the TV stations perfectly, used social media as a newsgathering tool, i.e. building photo galleries using photos uploaded on Twitter, communicating with people inside the Discovery building using FourSquare, being aggressive in updating the story every few minutes, etc. We got great press for how we covered that, and from that point on, I thought we were a breaking news source for a lot of Washington-area residents.
5. How do you see the news industry generally evolving over the next few years and will projects such as TBD have any role to play?
Sure, I think local is the next big thing, so sites like TBD definitely have a future — and a present. The upcoming mobile revolution will do more to help local sites than national, in my view. Location-based services — both on the editorial and business side — will become increasingly important. I also think you’ll see a shift in news organization structure, where there will be far fewer newsrooms of 100 or 200 people, but an explosion in newsrooms of 10 or 20. And I think those newsrooms will need to be more niche in order to have a viable business. So general-interest publications have some challenges ahead of them.
6. What did you want to achieve with TBD – audience, revenue, engagement? And how close is it to achieving those goals?
All of the above. I think what I was trying to do — and the great staff that’s there is still trying to do — is build a local news site that’s of the web, not just on it. That means having a real conversation with readers via social media and commenting. That means working collaboratively with the community by linking with them and, more importantly, working with them via the blog network we built. It means being aggressive in mobile, and producing a mobile site that take into account what information people want when they’re detached from a desktop or laptop. It means understanding that, in any major metro area, people only care about certain areas and you should try and get that information to them by using smart curation and geo-coding. By using curation, social media and excelling at breaking news, you can build engagement, and that eventually builds audience and revenue. Also, having geo-location features and mobile positions you nicely on the business side, especially for local sites.
7. What will you be doing next? i.e. where should well be looking for the next big shift? 😉
Not sure yet. Going to do some consulting through the holidays, and start looking at some opportunities to start something then. Have some ideas, just need to flesh them out before pitching them. But definitely want to be in something that’s 100 percent digital the next time out. Maybe I’ll feel differently some day, but for now, not interested in evangelizing the web to anyone. In my view, if you still need to be convinced to pay attention to the web, you probably shouldn’t be in the job you’re in. But that’s the culture that legacy companies have set up: Hey, new guys, convince the old guys to get on board. Maybe that’s how it has to be, but I know I don’t want to do that anymore. Working with the TBD.com and TBD TV folks was as close as I’ve ever come to having a full allotment of open-minded, experimental folks all focused on launching something new, different and successful. It’s hard to get that close, and not want to take it all the way.Q
Dim Sum Digital 
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