In my interview with Alan Jacobson recently he emphasized the importance of newspapers shifting their online focus to “community of interest” news sites instead of geographic community sites; which are essentially general interest newspapers recreated on a website.  I agree and have been pushing the idea here on metaprinter for quite some time as well.

Because of their inherent targeting, community-of-interest news sites have high reader engagement, more vibrant communities, and are better venues for targeted advertising.  Just look at techcrunch or Kotaku.

USA Today launched  MMA Fighting Stances, a mixed martial arts community site today.  This is the newest in a string of community sites that Gannett is launching (Open Road, Hotel Check-In, Game Hunters, The Oval, and Faith & Reason).  

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