Is Brand Loyalty a Myth?

To continue painting a bleak picture of the future of online journalism, people on the Internet won't differentiate between sources when they go to share a story - with perhaps the exception of taking card to avoid Fox News whenever possible. These users will distribute the link for CBS 6 in Appleton just as soon as they will one from CNN.com since the hard facts of the story are probably the same anyway. Chances are, only one publication's take on any given news event is going to achieve popularity on Digg.

There are two ways to avoid this near-inevitability: Either be the New York Times and have the image of being the national paper of record, or foster a community that appeals to these users. Of course, I've already ranted about the problems in attempting to attract a loyal community to a news site. So since any given article, in many cases, exists in a vacuum, how can media companies more effectively brand? Does loyalty online only apply to communities like forums and social bookmarking sites? Is attracting a devoted Web audience the only way for journalism sites to increase their consistent return traffic?