Make sure people can get around your site easily. There is a reason that these sites are set up the way they are. People have come to expect a certain format. That's not to say you can't be creative, but if you decide to really screw with your navigation, you WILL hear about it. Content is king.
Words are good.
Unless you can devote several hours a day to keeping the content fresh, make sure you have a good stable of writers. Give people a reason to come back. Even if you don't change content every few minutes, give people a reason to check back with you regularly. One way to do it is to provide live news headlines for your audience. It provides updated news feeds for thousands of topics.