Lawrence has a new site called BoomerGirl.
First impression: It’s well thought out, great target demo, attractive and well executed.
So does this prove that Lawrence can thrive in the post-Rob-Curley era, or that Rob left behind a talented and well trained staff? Or both?
Thrive? Curley says that his marching orders in developing ljworld.com and lawrence.com were not to lose money.
Hardly thriving.
Thrive in the sense of being creative and moving forward.
The Lawrence team is still one of the best online-journalism teams on the planet — it just doesn’t have Rob promoting it at five conferences around the world every week. :-)
There’s something to be said for self-marketing. The Lawrence folks don’t do much of it anymore (in the journalism industry, at least), which, tragically, makes people think they’re not doing much. But in reality, the team is more successful than it’s been in years — both in terms of page views and making money. Witness the success of its content-management system, Ellington, and the fact that they’ve hired (at my last count) *four* new Web developers in the past year.
The Lawrence folks are thriving, and they’re being modest about it.