Community focused reporting has long been the domain of ink and paper based publications, reaching a laser targeted audience whose concerns align with what is happening in the community. Advertising through such medium was considered efficient and cost effective given the specificity with which advertisers can ascertain the success of their advertising campaign. Given that readers are geographically confined to a predictable area, it is easy to offer them incentives to act, through tried-and-true mechanisms such as coupons and various discounts. Potential consumers act when they receive an offer which they can easily use, such as one for a local eatery, pet supply store and car repair garage for instance.

Paper is slowly but surely turning into a relic of the past, with more and more viewers turning to online sources for local community news and other matters of interest. The proliferation of online sources of consumable information has been a boon to viewers; however, much of what is being published online has a national scope with a smattering of international tidbits as well. Geographically focused community niche sites are still relatively rare, with many being the sort of amateurish slop that is characterized by a mish mash collection of thoughts, sometimes incoherent, rarely profound. It is therefore with much fanfare that the communities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk welcome a pair of new sites, the sort that is focused on local matters. Effective immediately, Virginia Beach News and Norfolk News will be delivering local content that matters the most to members of the community.

In the world of online advertising, many promote the idea that the more eyeballs the better; that is, the more people that an ad is exposed to, the better it is for the advertiser. On the surface, this sounds like a convincing enough argument; however, like everything else in life, things are never quite as simple as they may seem. For those who truly understand, the Holy Grail is not quantity, but rather, quality. It does an advertiser no good if scores of people in Canada view their ads when the advertiser sells icemakers in Arizona. In short, quantity only matters when quality is in place. Thus, scores of restaurant owners seeing ads for icemakers in the middle of summer in downtown Phoenix will be profoundly more effective than the same number of restaurateurs located in Canada, where the demand won't be nearly as compelling.

Targeted traffic is the online nomenclature for viewers that have a relatively higher chance of converting. "What we offer advertisers is the chance to reach a community whose demographic and preferences can be ascertained to a certain degree, much better than, say, a national campaign where the viewers are astronomically hard to gauge," explains A.L. Noel. "Tailoring a message that resonates with Norfolk or Virginia Beach will be much easier given that so much is known about its constituency, and that the readership can most certainly be expected to be somewhat invested in the community."