Lowell Feld over at Raising Kaine compares and contrasts the new Democratic Party of Virginia website with the new Republican Party of Virginia website. Although in Feld’s words he “bleeds Democratic blue,” he gives the RPV website much higher marks. While the Dem website looks good graphically, I agree with Feld that it amounts to an “empty shell.” The GOP website is loaded with fresh content, and it taps into the energy of the Republican blogosphere.
For all intents and purposes, the home page of the GOP website functions as a blog…. Which should come as no surprise, as the GOP communications director is Saun Kenney, who won the position largely on the basis of his reknown as a Republican blogger. One of the website’s strengths, as Feld points out, is that it links to more than 30 GOP or GOP-leaning blogs, tapping into the the party’s “netroots.”
There is dynamic new content on the Democratic Party website, but it’s buried. Other features, such as photos and videos, contain nothing new. Nobody’s interested in photographs from the 2005 gubernatorial campaign. In other respects, the website has evolved backwards. In a previous incarnation, when Laura Bland was communications director, the Dems published a feisty electronic newsletter entitled the “Demo Memo.” The GOP had nothing to compare with it. The concept was to combine the “push” of the Demo Memo to party activists with the “pull” of the website. The Demo Memo would drive traffic to the website; the website would sign up new subscribers for the newsletter. But the Demo Memo apparently has been relegated to the trash heap. The website fires on one cylinder, offering people very little reason to visit more than once.
Given the success of Raising Kaine in attracting readers, the DPV would be well advised to heed Feld’s advice.
