It's not just the fact that Nielsen/NetRatings statistics show the top-rated Web sites with audiences of 40 million to 50 million users a week. It's not just that the average Web user spends 7˝ hours online each week, visiting nearly 20 sites. And it's certainly not just the fact that the technology is finally working, with most major sites being able to handle increased traffic the first few days of the war with Iraq.

It's the fact that local print and broadcast online news operations have matured into businesses that leverage all the resources available to them. They are creating useful, informative and relevant experiences for their communities.

A New Broadcast Network

Take WRC-TV, aka NBC4, the network owned and operated station in Washington, D.C. market. The Web site is run by the Internet Broadcasting Systems network, which is an online media company operating 64 local TV station sites. Traditional broadcast affiliate models don't come into play with this network. The breakdown is purely by ownership, not primetime programming.

For media companies looking to leverage resources, the Internet allows and encourages these types of allegiances. IBS Founder and President Reid Johnson says most IBS stations have only one or two Web staffers on-site but rely on the 100 or so editorial people working for the network to help supplement local coverage. This model has become especially important for stations' war coverage. "We have clearly seen two areas satisfying the editorial: local angle and deep background," said Johnson.

For an international story on the scale of the war with Iraq, IBS can provide stations with extended coverage they can't easily create on their own. That means local staffers can concentrate on local content. Johnson said, "What we're finding in this first week of the conflict… is how the local stations are using the Web sites to tell the local angle of the conflict." While IBS is one example of the new, strategic relationships being formed to create better and deeper online content, it's not the only example.

AP Multimedia: Letting Local Do Local

At the Times Herald-Record, local coverage is mixed with national and international features from the Associated Press. While there are only two Web staffers at the New York Hudson Valley region's site, online content coordinator Erik Gliedman believes using syndicated content is an effective way to serve the audience. "The multimedia content from AP is hard to find in a nice package anywhere else," Gliedman said. "We really don't have the manpower or resources to create multimedia packages like this in-house, so this is a big help for us."

While users technically move off a local site to access the AP content; the navigation, look and feel is still in place. AP is providing a classic network service to its members. AP Digital Executive Producer Mark Cardwell believes it's easier for the wire service to repackage photographs into multimedia slideshows and deliver them to hundreds of sites than to have hundreds of local producers repackaging the same pictures.

"We have the resources," he said. "Members can cover their community and get their local angles and do things only they can do and let us do what we can do."

Cardwell's thinking is right on. He's taking the classic network-affiliate syndication model and applying it online. The key to success is how local sites package the material with their original content.

Public Radio Experience

Mixing programming from a variety of sources has been happening on public radio sites for several years. National Public Radio and Public Interactive, a for-profit service provider for the public broadcasting online community, provide news resources and other services for local station sites.

Mixing the various resources helps local sites like WBUR.org create unique experiences, even with content that dozens of other stations use. Economies of scale like this will help the smaller local Web sites stay alive. They will be able to compete with fewer resources, but still provide comprehensive coverage for targeted audiences.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Extra help enables producers, such as those at STLtoday.com, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's online arm, to flex their creative muscles. The Internet team takes pictures sent back by Post-Dispatch photographer Andrew Cutraro and creates multimedia galleries. Prior to the war, journalists gathered audio postcards from soldiers in Kuwait. The online team, with nine staffers in all, combined the audio with pictures and biographical information to create unique, multimedia Web experiences for users. Improving usability is also important for sites. Kurt Greenbaum, STLtoday.com's online news director, said his staff created a special gallery of Post-Dispatch correspondent Ron Harris's reports because of user demand.