Community Corner

Rockville Central Moving to Facebook

Founder and publisher Brad Rourke explains what it's all about.

It was a tumultuous Wednesday in this corner of the World Wide Web.

Rockville residents who like to get their daily dose of news online got an unexpected scoop from Rockville Central, where editor Cindy Cotte Griffiths and founder and publisher Brad Rourke announced that beginning March 1 the site would go dormant with new posts on Facebook only.

The news, which drew criticism from some loyal Rockville Central readers, came the same day that TBD.com, which includes Rockville Central as part of its local blogging network, announced a reorganization that meant cutting about a dozen staffers and scuttling much of its local news coverage.

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We caught up with a very busy Brad Rourke late Wednesday for a quick email Q&A on the move.

Rockville Patch: Why the move to Facebook only? You said on the site that it was "based on data."

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Brad Rourke: It is a combination of things. Looking at traffic, we see that Facebook is the second largest contributor of traffic to the rockvillecentral.com site. Also, in our most recent reader survey, 45 percent of respondents are daily Facebook users, and another 24 percent are several-times-a-week users. Finally, we know for a fact that most of the most active commenters on RC are also strong Facebook users. So we felt comfortable making the move. For me, the thing that clinched it was when Facebook changed how you manage pages a couple of weeks ago. It made it easier to manage the Rockville Central page. Suddenly, it seemed to make sense that, if we are truly trying to be a community hub, we need to go where the community is.  

Patch: There's been a lot written lately about the research that says young people are moving away from blogs. But it's also been written that many people are changing their definitions of blogs/news sites/other social media. How would you describe what Rockville Central is? A blog? A news site? Has what it is changed over time?

Rourke: I would describe us as a community hub. That's how we started out—the site was expressly designed to be a means for getting people to enter public life. (I've written on this in various venues, including in RC and in my own blog.) The news aspect was always really a tool designed to give people something to engage around. We never saw ourselves as in competition with any news provider, and we do not see ourselves as reporters. If anything, this move is going to get us back to basics—in the last year, we may have let the "news" side take over more than we ever meant it to.

Patch: What won't Rockville Central be able to cover on Facebook (or what will you choose not to cover) that you cover now? Your post mentioned City Council meetings. What about the mapping of the crime reports and real estate listings? Other features?

Rourke: I can't think of anything we CAN'T cover from within Facebook, except possibly the crime maps which require a place to embed a Google map. We are making a conscious decision to step away (a bit) from our daily reporting so we can focus more on curating. That is coincident with the move, but not really *because* of it.

Patch: What will become of the TBD.com connection? I read that you'll be their first Facebook-only partner. Does today's news of TBD layoffs change anything?

Rourke: I don't know how TBD's news changes things, to be honest. 

Patch: Are you worried that some people won't follow Rockville Central to Facebook?

Rourke: I expect some people won't follow, and I hope they do. But I am not worried about it because that implies we have some "traffic goal." We have something over 600 people "liking" the Rockville Central page. That gives us a good base to build from to create more community.  

Patch: What was the goal when you founded Rockville Central? How has it evolved (changes that followed trends in social media, demands of the community, something else)?

Rourke: (See above for why founded.) It's evolved by becoming more and more institutionalized. In many ways we have resisted this over time, because once you become an institution you start to make decisions based on self-interest. Taking away the Web site superstructure will, we hope, free us up to make more community-oriented decisions again. 

Patch: How has Rockville Central met your expectations (good or bad)?

Rourke: Rockville Central has more than met my expectations, almost from the first month. I really only ever expected 20 people to read it. But it kept growing. More importantly, I have seen people come into public life through Rockville Central—beginning to comment on things and then the next thing you know you see them at Citizens Forum [at Rockville City Council meetings]. Doesn't happen all the time, but it happens enough that my main purpose in founding it is being fulfilled. 

Patch: How has it not met your expectations or surprised you (good or bad)?

Rourke: I honestly thought it would be easier to get people to contribute pieces than it has turned out to be. And, the more we got "official," the harder it became.


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