New ratings game for Loudoun Papers....

It's time to rate the rags, giving you an even more efficient tool with which to plan your reading time...We'll rate 'em using the USRII scale (the "unscientific scale of relative interest and information"), which goes 1 to 10 in the context of the news and information we like - that is, news about business, politics, economics, technology, development, growth, interesting people and organizations; in short, all those things that really matter to ORB's (online resident businesses). 10 is anything published by http://www.dullessouthonline.com of course, and a 9 might typically be the WAPO Loudoun County coverage paired with Metro (they cover it better than anyone, it appears). We'll likely find a 1 before too long, among the blogs and newsletters attempting to inform Dulles South residents and businesses too late about events, and too little about what we want to know.

USRII results for last week:

WAPO - 9 (opened pandora's box with the Loudoun investigation)
Leesburg Today - 6 (decent, unique tidbits - but too much of nothing else)
Easterner - 4 - maybe 1 good story
Independent - 3 - not much in it
Connection - 2 - not worth the trip to the mailbox

Guest Entry - the Arlington Connection, gets a 4 as well - mainly because if was actually refreshingly-free of any issues or banter about developer greed and growth pains, just a bunch of good news and discourse on the new school board elections.

Late Entry - The Middleburg Eccentric shows us that Virginia culture can and does exist nearby, a little west of us, and it can be represented in very attractive, advertising-slim and well-written style. There's a little bit of everything, including some good politics and the ever-present power line issue, so we give this volume (Jan 25 - Feb 21) a 6! (Perhaps because this paper takes its darn time to churn out the content, is why it appears much more polished than the others).

(These are also now the first cumulative scores.)