Three primary roles in serving your audience

Although he's principally talking about local websites, dailies and community newspapers, Steve Yelvington has put up a thought-provoking post on his blog illustrating three roles that he says every successful publication, local or otherwise, needs to fill: Town Crier (which most are good at), Town Square and Town Expert (the latter two, not so good).

What he is talking about relates just as well to local and regional magazines and the way in which they should be thinking about their readers, both in print and online.

News is not enough. Doing the same thing better and faster is not enough. It's time to look left and right at what's not being done.