Larchmont has been involved in local journalism for years. From the creation the early Santa Barbara news aggregator spotlighting the best in local reportage, to the SBMET Newsgrid product, which remains a one-stop source for many, we’ve been working to keep the community informed.

Some of our sites run for a decade at a time. Other sites we launch at the drop of a hat. When fires threatened the City and local residents complained the County’s webpage for the incident was unreadable, we instantly launched a readable alternative companion site at JesusitaFire.org, republishing press releases from all involved agencies in a single location, in an easy-to-understand chronological order, and with taxonomy sorting to view all updates of a certain type (“evacuations”, etc.). Working tirelessly to keep the site updated for days on end, eventually we even found ourselves assisting inside the multi-agency Emergency Operations Center.

Larchmont has shown time and time again, the ability to rapidly launch new public resources within a matter of hours, rather than of days or weeks like our competitors.

Case study

Daytome

A popular original news site, 24 in 60, was planning to cease operations. Through discussions with the operator, it was agreed that Larchmont would take over the mantle and continue the coverage style under a new banner: Daytome.

Like its predecessor before it, Daytome was a project to summarize and present to readers the top 5 most significant stories that had taken place around the Earth in the past 24 hours. Each story was explained using 4 or 5 sentences, so that the reader might be able to read all 5 stories (20–25 sentences) in less than 60 seconds.

Larchmont launched the product and began distilling incredibly complex world events into “executive summaries” using simple terms, daily. Newswires like Reuters were used to locate what our editors would select as the top 5 daily stories and then English-language newspapers in cities around the world were used to get multiple perspectives on each of the 5 stories.

Daytome illustrated for all its readers that news did not need to be sensational. It also did not need to attempt to intimidate its readers. It illustrated our commitment to never bury the lede: with a reader’s first glance, they new what had happened. 5 stories a day allowed readers to stay informed with developments around the world, but not become overwhelmed with a huge volume of content or hourly push updates and notifications.

While Daytome has since been discontinued, readers may enjoy the continuing coverage at Reuters Top, AP 5 Things, Harper’s Weekly Review, Wikipedia’s Current Events, or News Minimalist – although, sadly, only News Minimalist is as pared down and dedicated to not wasting your time as Daytome.