20 Under 40 - 2006 Profile: Rob Curley

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2006

Vice President of Product Development | Washingtonpost.Newsweek
Interactive in Arlington, Va.

IT'S RARE TO FIND Rob Curley driving only 6 mph, but on a Thursday morning in late September the new-media guru is caught in a traffic jam on I-95.He just left his position as director of new-media and convergence at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News and is driving his black Lincoln LS to Arlington, Va., and his new job as vice president of product development at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.

"It's not your grandpa's Lincoln," says Curley, 35. "It's a cool Lincoln."

In Curley's ideal world, the daily newspaper wouldn't be your grandpa's, either. It, too, would be cooler.

"I want our newspapers to work on any device, even if it hasn't been invented yet," he says. "I want it to work on iPods, phones, Sony PlayStations. I want to see it on YouTube."

Newspaper companies should no longer just be in the business of putting news on paper, Curley says. Instead, they should "document the living history of the community and give it to residents however and wherever they want it."

Curley began his career in 1996 as an education reporter and online editor at The Ottawa (Kan.) Herald. In just 10 years, with stops in Topeka, Kan.; Augusta, Ga.; Lawrence, Kan.; and Naples, he has become "one of the most critically acclaimed, award-winning Web developers in the world," Gregg K. Jones, president of Jones Media Inc., in Greeneville, Tenn., and NAA chairman in 2004-05, wrote in nominating Curley for 20 Under 40.

How did Curley move from ink to pixels? "In 1996, I had an e-mail address," Curley says. "I was one of almost none in the newsroom. [The editors] said, 'OK, he's a reporter, he's a nerd, let's make him do the Web thing.'"

Ten years later, traffic clears on I-95, and Curley drives 80 mph thinking of new ways to give readers content they want.

Rob Curley
Vice President of Product Development
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive in Arlington, Va.

Q: In what ways do you think your current position will change over the next five years?
Right now, even after 10 years of online publishing for most newspapers, there still is a feeling in our industry that there are newspaper people and there are new media people. I have little doubt that in five years there won't be that kind of distinction. We'll all be on the same team, and the word "newspaper" will mean the organization that helps its community live a better life by communicating through printed pages, video, audio, online, via cell phones, and in ways we haven't even thought of yet.

Reaching our readers in many different ways will just be something that we all do. We won't even think twice about it.

What's the best career advice anyone ever gave you?
While I was at the Lawrence ( Kan.) Journal-World, Bill Snead taught me that it's not about the technology, which can be more than a shock to the system for a person whose career is new media. Yet, I'm not sure it can be said enough. He emphasized to me that what our industry really is about is connecting with our audience. Technology is nothing more than developing new ways of connecting with our audience and giving them something that they never knew they needed, but love having.

Bill always said we have to give our readers these little gifts and surprises whenever we can. The key is the connection, not the delivery method or the software. With every project, I now ask myself a million times, "How does this connect to our readers and what are they getting out of this?" Taking newspapers into the digital world isn't about the coolest software; it's about the coolest connection we can make with our audience.

What three things would you change about the newspaper industry?

• Sometimes, I get the feeling that I'm viewed as a radical. Yet, I don't see myself as a radical—instead as a realist who loves this industry. I say that because there seems to be so much doom and gloom out there right now when it comes to the newspaper industry, and, to be honest, there is no other period in American journalism that I wish I was a part of. We should be excited about our current challenges, not freaked out about them. The doom and gloom has got to go because it just feeds upon itself. Talk about an industry with a self-esteem problem!
• We can't be afraid of changes in our business model. It seems like things are definitely more complicated than they've ever been, but the opportunities also are greater. We shouldn't be afraid to reinvent a dying revenue stream before it dries up completely. We shouldn't be afraid of margins that look differently than they did five years ago. It seems like we spend so much time worrying and talking about the industry and the institution, when instead I think we should be talking about what our readers and advertisers want. My gut tells me that if we focused more on what our readers and advertisers, everything else would take care of its self.
• We should be investing more in new ways to serve readers and advertisers. When I worked at the Lawrence newspaper, our publisher there always said we need to be driving with our brights on, and man, oh man, was he right. Right now, it feels like there aren't enough people in the newspaper industry driving with their brights on.