With the success of the mayoral special section, I have come to see the light on the value in clustering major stories into a single repository.  Some stories take weeks, months, and even years to develop.  It’s nice to have one location to track the evolution of a story or major trend.  Looking back at the archives, here is the inaugural list of “special reports”:

• Index page…as long-term major stories develop, expect new sections.  Also, archiving mini-events that get lots of coverage (ie, Folk Fest, NASCAR races, etc)
• Circuit City Been tracking this story since the failed Blockbuster takeover.
• Mayor Election 2008
• Obama at the Richmond Coliseum It’s a beautiful day…
• Richmond Baseball Chronicles the exit of the Braves to Gwinnett and the quest for a new team and ballpark (including the latest Shockoe Bottom movement).
• Richmond Grocery Wars With the addition of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, we are seeing the mother of all grocery store battles.  Add a Wegman’s and you have Armageddon.
• Richmond Media The evolution of Richmond media, both old and new.  Like all newspaper companies, Media General is going through an industry seismic shift.  This special report also pays attention to alternative media sources in Richmond.
• VCU Twin Scandals The Chief Rodney Monroe Degree scandal and secretive Philip Morris contracts.  Not a banner year.  Should have been.
• Vice President Tease: Tim Kaine and Eric Cantor…Rove vs Kaine I hate being manipulated by campaigns with these trial balloons (and grab for free earned media)…sidebar: Karl Rove calling Richmond a Podunk town…The McCain campaign dissing Northern Virginia as not the “real Virginia.”…Who the hell does the GOP strategy? 

notes:

• Brilliant move by MEG.  The domain and SEO placement alone was worth the price (which hasn’t been revealed btw).  Gatewayva? Inrich? Yuch.  The city paper finally gets the crown jewel of domain names, the city name itself.  Only a few major national papers have this kind of asset:
  • Boston Globe Boston.com
  • Charlotte Observer Charlotte.com
  • Cleveland Plain Dealer Cleveland.com
  • Newark Star-Ledger NJ.com
• In the end, I think they’re going to just switch out inrich for Richmond.com.  Basically re-point the DNS, re-do the masthead/graphic logos, but keep the content management system/design of the current inrich (for better or for worse). It’ll be interesting to see whether Franklin Street can maintain the official RAR/Central Virginia Regional MLS ,  Retail Merchants Association, and Richmond Tourism relationships.
• I hope they keep the Richmond.com article archives.  If I were in charge, I would combine all the existing Brick, Mashup, and Richmond.com content and place it on the legacy Richmond.com CMS platform (ie, still keep a “separate” “alt-weekly” website).  Since Richmond.com will be getting imported to the mother ship, I would re-brand this new site using the existing Brickreloaded.com, mashuprva.com, or a recycled inrich.com domain name (or, maybe, come up with something brand new). 
• The content partnership between competitors Chesterfield Observer (especially this one.  bad blood here), Henrico Citizen, and WORKMAGAZINE will probably go away.
• Will the next mayor keep “Ask the Mayor” on this platform based on the new ownership (or rather, vice versa)?
• With my research work on the ButtonALL search engine (ie, building city search engine channels), I’ve sort of become an expert on city media demographics around the country.  For a town the size of Richmond, the scope and breadth of our media (mainstream, alt, indie, and blogs) is simply amazing.   You don’t see our kind of media ownership diversity anywhere except for much, much larger cities like NYC and Seattle.  Richmond.com itself was an over-achieving oddity.  Many of the Associated City websites are more or less advertising landing pages with very little content.  In its tenure, Richmond.com under Whitlock did an admirable job with its original articles and partnerships.  It’s definitely going to be missed, but our media ecosystem should be able to fill the void.
• Who will pick up the alternative media slack in the 804?
  • I’d like to see the one-year old RVANews take it to the next level.  Already, their article on this purchase has engendered the best reader dialogue/gossip.  Having followed the mayor race closely, I think their coverage has also been a real asset for Richmond voters.  The RVANews group (which includes the neighborhood blogs) is truly independent, lean (ie, built to last), and very likable.
  • Style Weekly recently re-modeled themselves with a new website design (this has been in “beta” for way too long).  They will be an even bigger player now that they’ve finally added reader comments and cleaner RSS.  Of course, Landmark’s on again-off again fire sale needs to be resolved.
  • The Richmond blogosphere is fairly healthy.  Once January 1 rolls along, expect River City Rapids (whose voice has been missed) to return with a vengeance.  Weekly Rant is a great calendar option/alternative now that Richmond.com will be folded into Things to Do.
  • Richmond BizSense is doing yeoman’s work on business news.  I think they’re actually doing a better job with business news than the TD itself.  Once the economy picks up, I can see a phase 2 pulp weekly for this outfit (like the old Richmond Inside Business).
  • Don’t overlook the television and radio stations.  CBS6 under Mark Holmberg has turned around their website with solid, original newsreporting (their VCU scandal coverage is a standard).  NBC12 is doing fantastic work with politics.  WRVA wants to be a player.
  • The darkhorse (or sleeping 800 pound gorilla) in all this is Richmond Magazine. On November 24, they will be re-launching their website.  I’m crossing my fingers and hoping they open up their articles and archives vault.  In terms of original reporting and stories (especially Richmond lifestyle), they are elite.  Of all the players, they have the content infrastructure to fill the Richmond.com void right now.
• Seeing Media General’s Terms and Conditions up makes it official but weird (sort of like when the bar at Kingsmill added Stella Artois on tap)

• David Allen Coe @ Toad’s…Longhaired Redneck is one of my favorite songs of all time ’cause I can sing all those songs about Texas…
• Dropkick Murphies @ Toad’s…Scorcese knows how to score a film.  When I think of Goodfellas, I think of Layla.  When I think of the Departed, I think of Going Back to Boston.
• Hometown debuts of GWAR and Lamb of God @ the National…Also, nice to see the National occasionally book local acts (Farm Vegas and Culdera)
• The God awful cover band trend continues…
• Red Jumpsuit Apparatus @ the National…Recently added.  I’m not a huge fan but the kids love em.
• BTW, JayZ and Sheryl Crow, hope you guys are having a great time in Virginia! 

http://richmondgoodlife.com/music.htm

McCain, 11 | Obama, 6 | No Endorsement, 4

notes: 

• keep in mind the oligarchy of VA media ownership (Media General owns a slew of these papers all endorsing McCain. It was very interesting  to see the conservative-owned Landmark–Va. Pilot/Style Weekly– stay on the sidelines).  In this awful time for newspapers, does it even make business sense to endorse at all (you’re bound to piss off 45-55% of your readership either way)?  Major city papers like the Roanoke Times and Fredericksburg Free Lance Star also stayed neutral.
• the intensity of McCain support was less than emphatic at times.  One conservative paper in Northern Virginia declared neutrality simply because of the Palin pick.  The Daily Press endorsed but then followed up with a heavy disclaimer.  Even the mighty TD’s endorsement was wimpy.

For those speed/news junkies, I have compromised a bit by creating a twitter account:  http://twitter.com/RichmondGL I’ll use Twitter (which you can add to any RSS reader) to announce any new updates to the RGL site.  I usually publish twice a day (AM and PM).  I will be using the following nomenclature to identify versions: V(for version)YYYYMMDDA/P…for example, V20081016P= Version October 16, 2008 PM.  Here is an example of my first batch of 140 character limit tweets:

Dave Matthews 4 Obama at VCU Alltel…Plus that Beasties show? Daaaamn http://my.barackobama.com/p…
about 3 hours ago from web    btw, I still relish the fact it’s been three hours and MSM has still not picked up this story!

Some additional mayor articles added (The Voice, JRN analysis on signs, the Barksdale, first actual arts org to speak up after Style Debate) about 3 hours ago from web    

V20081016P: Yeah, definitely feels like a Richmond crime wave is setting in…gut feeling, no hard evidence…Check out Goldman’s challenge about 4 hours ago from web    
 
V20081015A…Sign o the Times…Brazen armed robberies seem to be up…Restaurant reviews seem to be fewer… about 14 hours ago from web    

V20081015P published…mostly new tech and mayor articles…Save Richmond always hard hitting…Feelin bad for JGF…#7 lifting in prison 8:04 PM Oct 15th from web    

Finally, a 2.0 way to keep up the Good Life’s 1.0 interface! 7:33 PM Oct 15th from web 

sidebar: Style Weekly Food Review Pet Peeve #1: Ever notice how Style Weekly sometimes lumps together multiple reviews of “ethnic” restaurants.  They do it with Thai restaurants, Sushi restaurants, soul food restaurants, etc; as if minority-owned restaurants don’t warrant a solo, independent review (imagine if they lumped the genre-similar DeLux, Lulu’s, and Kitchen 64 as one review?!).  My God, Lucille’s could very well become our town’s version of Mary Mac’s Tea Room (ie, the signature soul food kitchen where Presidential and Gubernatorial candidates visit for a photo-op).  Hey Style, Lucille’s freakin deserves a standalone review…sigh.

Anyways, back to my solo-review, after learning the fried chicken would take a while to cook, I opted for the baked version instead.  According to the waitress, it was a good choice since baked chicken is Lucille’s “thing.” And it was indeed a good choice as the gravy-smothered chicken was fall of the bone tender-yummy.  Sides were solid, though the cornbread was a B- (a little dry, could use more butteriness).  Yeast rolls get an A, however.

The real star of the show was the crab cake.  Crab cakes were available as an add-on for $10+.  I was hesitant at first as I thought that was a little high for a standalone crab cake…until it arrived…Ooooh, I’ve been looking all over town for this kind of crab cake, the true Baltimore style.  Yes, Bawlmer crab cakes are loaded with the crab meat, but they also utilize a thin coat of batter for crispiness.  For some reason, most Richmond restaurants go with the Crab Imperial approach forgetting the “cake” part (ie, the batter).  I actually visit Baltimore quite a bit, and Lucille’s version hangs with the best of them.  The seasoning is just right, and the $10 is easily justified by the generous and moist crab portions.  Best crab cake in Richmond???  Hmmmm, probably…

Lucille’s
1241 N Laburnum Ave
Richmond, VA 23223
(804) 644-1646

I think newspapers know this, so they pack Sunday with their best face and stories.  When I do my morning culling of stories for the Good Life, I’m amazed at the amount of quality stories out there (I actually add more articles on this day than any other, which is strange as usually broadcast and non-traditional media shut down for the weekend). Read Virginia Newspapers

I really liked this recent Lifehacker article: Get the Most Out of Your New Town.  I think the RGL covers a lot of these topics, and is becoming a great site for new Richmonders:

Have we finally jumped the shark?

So I haven’t been yet (I would go for their over-sized sub), primarily, because I am dead set on my current Italian sub rotation of 8 1/2-Rudino’s-Coppola’s-Jersey Mike’s (shut up, there is a time and place for chain subs…I’m actually looking forward to Jimmy John’s arrival).  I’ll end up there at some point and promise a review in the future.  In the mean time, See All Black Sheep reviews…

…And while, we’re on this topic, I recently updated the Richmond Good Life “search engine.”  I basically added all of the local food websites (including restaurant websites and restaurant review blogs) for the spider to index.  The results are pretty cool.  Take the search term “Black Sheep”, for example:

Google Results:

• Black Sheep IMDB movie…Chris Farley, we miss ya!
• Black Sheep Official movie site
• Albino Blacksheep Software
• Black Sheep Bags - Knitting Patterns 
• Black sheep Wikipedia definition
• Black Sheep (hip hop group) Wikipedia definition
• Black Sheep - The Choice Is Yours Remember that song?…you can get with this or you can get with that
• MySpace.com - BLACK SHEEP Rap group’s Myspace

Richmond Good Life Enhanced Google Results:

• ‘Black Sheep: Quaint and Tasty’ Richmond.com review
• Black Sheep fuses Cajun and Creole with down-home goodness Times Dispatch review
• Carver & Jackson Ward News » Style gets to The Black Sheep CJWN review
• Style Weekly : Richmond’s alternative for news, arts, culture and …Style review (guys, update your page titling logic)
• Carver & Jackson Ward News » Black Sheep Another CJWN review
• River City Food and Wine: The Black Sheep - Good and Plenty Blog review
• ‘The Richmond.com Poll’ in Viewpoints Richmond.com poll results (best new restaurant)
• Carver & Jackson Ward News » more gold stars for Black Sheep Another CJWN review (Google loves your pagerank, CJWN)
• ‘Dish’ in Restaurants & Dining Richmond.com news
• The Black Sheep, Richmond, Virginia FINALLY, official website (don’t worry, you guys will float to the top…you’re just too new and not recognized by the algorithm yet)

In terms of the search engine, Restaurants, bars, and coffee shops are one thing, but right now, I’m trying to figure out whether there is any value in further spidering other local Richmond businesses like plumbers or car dealerships.  Right now, I’m leaning towards not going there; instead, opting to index good meta-directories (like trade associations) for these kinds of vendors.  I would still be adding unique stores/retailers (like the kind you see in an Austin Independent Business Alliance…sure wish ShopRVA was better) to the inclusion list (ie, the Plan 9’s, Chop Suey’s, and La Diff’s of the world)…