While searching the job boards to try and match up a friend who’s out of work, I came across this promising opportunity. It seems Freedom Interactive, part of Freedom Communications and parent company fo the OC Register, is launching OrangeCounty.com later this year.
There are few details in the help wanted ad but the new online product seems to take direct aim at OC Weekly.
Find out what you can expect in the new site after the jump:
The Product Manager is responsible for building OrangeCounty.com into the best site for young people to find, share and review fun things to do in Orange County. We’re looking for someone with a pioneering spirit, a passion for our community, great instincts for networking and the ability to inspire others to action.
What You Will Bring To The Table:
• Experience in building online communities
• Expertise in social media, user engagement, user experience
• Strong organizational skills and excellent follow through
• Outstanding people skills and the ability to work with all position levels within Freedom Interactive and at the Orange County Register
Most importantly, you’ll need to love being tuned in to the local entertainment marketplace.
Key Responsibilities:
• Be responsible for the content and revenue of OrangeCounty.com
• Create a vibrant site that is rich with video, photos, feeds and user generated content in these areas at launch:
o Nightlife & bands
o Dining
o Movies
o Shopping & fashion
o Cosmetic surgery
o Beaches & outdoors
o Celebrity & Juice TV
o Amusement Parks
• Work with staff at Orange County Register and Freedom Specialty Media to create channels of content and user engagement
• Negotiate partnerships with third-party content sites throughout Orange County and employ a widget strategy to drive traffic to the site
• Stage events and promotional activities
• Engage sales and work with marketing to develop sales plans and programs
• Formulate and implement email programs to grow traffic
• Serve as the face of OrangeCounty.com
Like their new freedompolitics.com I will be able to describe the new site in two words.
BORE-RING.
The Reg is in a death spiral. Only helped in the downward dive is the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric of their Op Ed writers. This site won't help that.
Didn't they try this already with their ill-fated "Juice" web TV site? It is already on hiatus. This sounds like another disaster in the making…but I expect better from freedompolitics.com. There is an audience for that message, as we saw with Ron Paul's following last year.
a very small audience indeed; Libertarians make up a teeny weeny portion of the electorate and there are no Libertarians holding major offices. Ron Paul won no primaries, but keep on kidding yourself that there's a big audience there.
This sounds nothing like a challenge to OC Weekly and everything like their own version of Yelp! And, if it is a challenge to the Weekly, we beat their last two—SqueezeOC and the OC Post—to the ground.
The Weekly has an established brand; OrangeCounty.com does take clear aim at your readers based on the job description above. More competition is good for everyone.
Gustavo. It's not like it's a fair fight. But hey, if they're willing to come back for another ass whooping, who am I to say they shouldn't.