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The Wall Street Journal has a story about the “failure” of LoudounExtra.com, hyperlocal coverage for the Washington Post.

For believers in the power of rigorous local coverage to help save newspapers, the Washington Post’s launch of LoudounExtra.com last July was a potentially industry-defining event. It paired a journalistic powerhouse with a dream team of Internet geeks to build a virtual town square for one of Virginia’s and the nation’s most-affluent and fastest-growing counties.

Almost a year later, however, the Web site is still searching for an audience. Its chief architect has left for another venture in Las Vegas, and his team went with him. And while Post executives say they remain committed to providing so-called hyperlocal news coverage, they are re-evaluating their approach.

“It’s too early for us to put any kind of stamp on it as a success or failure,” said Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, a unit of Washington Post Co. “We’re just going to keep experimenting,” he added.

The founder of Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, is planning the launch of an online obituary site. In the article, Taylor is quoted as saying that he’s built his career on migrating the newspaper to the web, piece by piece. The piece he’s missing is the obit section.

E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter blog about guess what, online media, has a post about journalists rebelling against changes in media techniques. Has some interesting perspectives on the nature of journalism and new approaches.

For only $18 a month, you can build your own user-generated news site at Instant Journalist. Journalism.co.uk interviewed founder Scott Durham. Is this the future of news?