Coverage of special events in a community can also help build Web site traffic. A reputation for quality local news gathering and reporting will carry over to a local news Web site, if the site also delivers quality local news. The experience of television and radio news in covering breaking stories can be a significant strength in developing audience loyalty, if the Web sites do indeed report breaking news quickly and regularly. Providing a story with some context by bundling related stories or providing links to related archived articles or to more specific information can be attractive to users who are deeply interested in the story. Although sites are trying to keep better track of how visitors use them, there is relatively little usability research.
Most sites rely on user complaints and staff judgment to evaluate usability.
While local television stations are busy developing local news on Web sites and original content for television, relatively few are developing original content for the Web. Nor are they developing especially innovative ways to present news on the Web. Most writers, editors and producers of Web content simply reprocess station content. They generally do not break new journalistic ground. Occasionally there is additional depth, but having unique Web content or Web reporters for local news is the rare exception.