This is a really great read from Wired: one of their writers, Evan Ratliff, essentially became a fugitive for nearly a month, attempting to avoid being caught by an online community being lured by a $5,000 prize. You can probably take two things from the story:

1) It’s pretty damned hard to disappear if someone really wants to find you
2) Being on the run is pretty damn lonely if all you have for friends are Twitter spambots

I’ve written before about how newspapers really need to innovate in order to survive, so it’s really fascinating to see a project that takes traditional media into a space (interactive gaming) that you absolutely would not expect. In some ways, however, it really isn’t such a bizarre move. Newspapers have traditionally had readers who read mainly for the puzzles inside – my wife occasionally picks up the free paper just for the crossword.

Additionally, the ARG involves games, trivia and scavenger hunts that require knowledge of the local history of Rochester. This takes advantage of the newspaper’s core competencies of both generating local content and maintaining an archive of local content. In a way, it almost mirrors the “locavore” trend, where foodie/environmentalists only eat food grown within a certain distance from where they live.

This goes in direct opposition to what newspapers have been doing, which is to increasingly source content from international agencies like the AP or CNN. I suppose the assumption is that buying news is cheaper than hiring someone to go out and report on it. The new demands on media won’t let local newspapers get away with this anymore. If I want national press coverage, I won’t go to my local paper (or it’s website), I’ll just go to Google News.

In the future, I don’t think I’ll be opening the paper everyday and see an ARG game. It is, however, a worthwhile experiment, and it’s good to see old media trying out something new.