1. Web 2.0 The Local You Know, The Local You Don’t Rich Skrenta CEO & Co-Founder skrenta@topix.com

2. Kicking and Screaming 51% of traffic, 10% of channels in 2004 We didn’t set out to do “Local” Boring Hard to monetize Nobody else had it We Built an Aggregated News Site

3. Getting our Feet Wet in Local The Good News Geo-localizing can target the advertising as well Local content $6.00 Local real estate $30.00 Bay Area real estate $60.00 Heck… And it should just keep growing Google has 500k advertisers6M local businesses in the US

4. Uh Oh The Bad NewsNot enough local content 1,440 Local daily papers 2,303 News radio stations 1,686 Television stations X6 3 4 X X 8,640 6,909 6,744 22,293 Number of populated ZIP codes in US Total number of local stories per day 32,500 Original Local Stories

5. Blogosphere ? We thought the blogosphere might fix this Sigh.

6. Negative Sum Game Local information monopoly doesn’t translate online Internet kills revenue for other media But doesn’t replace it * Borrell Associates Monopoly profits simply disappear Craigslist costs the Bay Area's traditional newspapers $50-$65 million annually It’s Getting Worse

7. If You Want Something Done… Could we create it ourselves? Topix 2006 5 Million Unique Visitors 2.3 pageviews per visitor We added the ability to comment on stories 10 Million Unique Visitors 20 pageviews per commenter Most active areas in small communities Topix 2007

8. Local Citizen Journalism What Worked? Tornadoes Strike Caruthersville, MO 200 posts pop. 6,636

9. Caruthersville Forum Post Volume Tornadoes Hit Teachers Sex Scandal Police Chief Discussion Web 2.0, America. America, Web 2.0 Local issues drive local traffic

10. Web 2.0 in Anytown USA Comments in 19,868 towns Daily activity in over 1,000 cities This stuff works! 40k posts per dayAs many posts as local articles in system

11. The Conversation is Local