LESSONS LEARNED FROM APBNEWS.com

By: Carl Sullivan A Conversation With Executive Editor Hoag Levins



As dot-com investments cool off, pure content plays aren't looking so
hot. The e-commerce crowd endured the first casualties: Boo.com,
Brandwise.com, Toysmart.com, and Violet.com among the most recent.



Now, content sites are suffering from the same investment vacuum. The
Digital Entertainment Network went bust last month. Highly respected
APBNews.com announced Monday that the money's gone. Two days later,
Salon.com laid off 13 staffers and closed a bureau in an effort to cut
costs. Even Web shops with deep old-media pockets, like the CBS Internet
Group, are issuing pink slips.



'The new era of day trading and volatility brought to the stock market
by the Internet has ironically introduced a level of instability that's
had a direct impact on dot coms like ours,' said APBNews.com Executive
Editor Hoag Levins. On Wednesday afternoon, the crime news site was
operating with a volunteer staff as company founders sought new
investors or business partners. If they aren't successful within the
next few days, they likely will pull the plug on the site forever.



But Levins doesn't think the financial difficulties faced by APBNews
should be taken as a sign that the online news industry is in trouble.
'It only shows that there's no sure thing on the Internet,' he says.
'Even a stunningly good product in terms of editorial quality isn't a
guarantee of success. You're constantly at the [mercy of the] vagaries
of the stock market.'



Levins, the former executive editor of Editor & Publisher
magazine who was instrumental in the formation of E&P Online in 1996,
hasn't lost his faith in Web journalism. 'APB has helped to demonstrate
that the concept of high-level journalism on the Internet on a very
large scale is a very viable one,' he says. 'We were able to draw
monthly page views of 18 million to 20 million per month. We have over a
million unique users. We showed that a really well-done, single-genre
news site can work.'



In the end, APBNews is a victim of bad timing, Levins says. 'Other
content sites may not be as good as we are, but will still succeed.
There will be lots of false starts in this early stage of the [online
news] industry.'



If additional funding had been secured, APBNews would have eventually
succeeded, Levins says. 'We were building a truly multimedia operation
with TV and radio production,' he says. 'Once the Internet and TV merge
to become the central medium that's in most homes in America, that's
when the sustainable advertising from middle-level and regional
advertisers will materialize. When the circulation of the Internet goes
over 50% household penetration, it becomes parallel to print newspapers
and cable.'



Whether or not that happens, old media can learn a lot from new. After
working as a reporter at Philadelphia dailies, Levins became interested
in the Web in the early 1990s. He was a consultant on several early Web-

building efforts by newspapers, including the Asbury Park Press
in New Jersey.



'Web sites without ties to old media are more dynamic and more
innovative,' he says. 'They're not held back by other concerns within
the company for their traditional products.' The result is an energized
newsroom with workers who believe strongly in what they're doing.



'I think in the one subject we covered, crime, we showed that the
Internet can have an impact and provide strong journalism,' Levins adds.
'A lot of news organizations looked at us and began to look at their own
crime coverage in different ways. The Internet is still the future of
the news business.'



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