Kansas’ CJOnline wins awards — and audience — with its multimedia pizzazz

This column appeared Aug. 20, 2002, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site.

By J.D. Lasica

The pilgrims come from the world over, making the journey from far-flung media empires to learn the True Way of Online Publishing, the precise combination of innovation, grit and pluck that the folks at CJOnline have concocted to make it the liveliest little news site in the land.

Last March, for instance, a delegation from London’s Daily Mail — including owner-publisher Lord Rothermure — trooped out to the mecca of Topeka, Kansas, to glean the secret of the site’s success. Others have journeyed from Gannett, Lee Newspapers and umpteen universities.

“It blows me away to see all these people who want to fly out to Kansas. I’m always afraid they’re coming to make fun of us,” says Rob Curley, the dry wit who ran the Topeka Capital-Journal’s new media operations until last month. “They quickly find out how small-townish Kansas really is. You can walk right up and talk to the governor.”

Why the pilgrimages? Let us count the reasons:

• A well-deserved reputation for innovation. CJOnline’s Kansas Legislature site, its HawkZone sports site and an interactive marketing campaign created for a casino advertiser won top awards at last month’s Digital Edge Awards, sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America. Remarkably, CJOnline landed among the finalists in eight out of eight categories it entered.

• A commitment to multimedia. While Big Media players like CNN.com and ABCNews.com have removed free video clips from their sites, CJOnline has forged ahead in the other direction. The site posts five to 10 audio interviews [italic]per day, plus video clips, court documents and more.

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