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JimPB said:

1.  Profiles (life stories) of interesting persons that reflect the diversity of Arlington.  

2.  Perceptions of diverse persons, e.g., how do police perceive the public; auto service reps (probably former) perceive the service needs of their customers (sales can and does rule over actual need); waiters and waitresses their customers; and store managers their store's customers?  (When my youngest daughter was a store manager for a major drug store chain, she confronted widespread attempts at stealing — shoplifting especially in poorer communities; employee theft everywhere; and “white collar” theft in affluent neighborhoods — attempting to return items for credit or money that the store did not/had not had for sale.  This hardens one's view about character traits.)     

3. Duplicating a periodic NYTimes feature about how an individual himself or herself or with his family typically spend Sundays. It introduces and humanizes persons in the news and presents different ways in how Sundays are used.  

4. If data from elsewhere can be generalized to Arlington County, a substantial majority of young adults are NOT into the bar scene and don't eat out that much.  Their interests are in other things — sports, church groups, hobbies, studying to enhance their knowledge and skills, even cooking. I'd love to see pieces about these activities and those engaged in them. 

What would you like to see in ARLNow.Com? 

Pretty much anything other than what's on your list.

I’d like a classifieds section so I don’t have to use Craigslist to sell things and possibly get stabbed/shot.

Anyone looking to buy a Camera???

Maybe a ride share board.

ARLnow.com said:

JimPB said:

I know that coverage requires time, which costs, and all of the media are facing challenges in obtaining revenues sufficient to enable the coverage that used to be pre-Craig’s List, et al; yet, one can suggest and hope.  Before offering four hopes of mine for ARLNow.Com “coverage,” I would like to ask Scott what would help increase revenues for ARLNow.Com.

Thank you for the suggestions.

The new Real Estate section is helping to generate a bit of extra revenue. We’ll be launching a new Event Calendar and a Services Directory later this year, that should also help. We hope to use the extra revenue to eventually employ two full time reporters, which should allow for some more in-depth articles (though concise, easy-to-read articles will remain the norm).

We’re interested to know, however, what readers think about one particular idea we had — an idea that would help the site and help local businesses. The idea is to do some Reddit-style “ask me anything” articles with local business owners. Basically, we would run a short profile on their business and then for the rest of the day readers would be able to ask questions about the business in the comments section. For instance, the owner of a yoga studio might be able to answer questions about yoga.

It would be clearly stated that the article is the result of a sponsorship, but we would like to know how readers feel about it before we launch it.

I think it would be a great idea.  When Tom S in the Post does his dining chats, some of the best answers come from chefs who write in and directly respond to questions.  So often, general readers make assumptions about businesses or services which may or may not be correct.  (For example, why wasn't Sam's open more often?)  Having someone from that business able to explain decisions would be great.  I do think it would have to be aggressively moderated, however, so that the owner doesn't get inundated with either insults or with personal gripes about specific issues that don't matter to the general public.  Otherwise, owners could deem this feature to be not worth their effort.  Just my $.02.

CourthouseChris said:

Funnily enough I had a similar thought when reading the IAma's on reddit a little while ago – for a hyperlocal version.  It's a good idea.  Though I'd be interested in watching the AMA discussions with, say, someone from ArlCo government on county planning… dare I say streetcar planning.  Or perhaps other local notables, if you could get them to agree to it, that is.

That is in the works, as well.

ARLnow.com said:

We're interested to know, however, what readers think about one particular idea we had — an idea that would help the site and help local businesses. The idea is to do some Reddit-style “ask me anything” articles with local business owners. Basically, we would run a short profile on their business and then for the rest of the day readers would be able to ask questions about the business in the comments section. For instance, the owner of a yoga studio might be able to answer questions about yoga.
It would be clearly stated that the article is the result of a sponsorship, but we would like to know how readers feel about it before we launch it.

I think that's a great idea.

Do the AMA stuff. I run a local blog (boobs bacon bourbon) and TONS of people request and offer to participate in AMA posts, from local beer directors to bar owners, etc. I think it'd be interesting.