Who’ll replace local newspapers?
(I sometimes fear that the conversation here on Hyperlocal Blogger is focused too much on hyperlocal news and what’s going on around us with so many newspapers struggling. After all, local news blogs are just one of my 5 types of local bloggers. I don’t mean to ignore the other types, but we’re in a cycle now where the news industry and news bloggers are carrying the conversation. Apologies if this isn’t of interest; hopefully, you appreciate the importance of this topic even if it doesn’t directly apply to your blog.)
Reason magazine’s Jesse Walker writes a great article about the ongoing demise of many newspapers, which we’ve talked about plenty here on HLB. He also suggests four places to get local information after the newspaper goes away:
- The gadflies. (”No truthful list of local sources can exclude this guy. When he isn’t watching lawmakers, he’s on the phone with reporters, urging them to cover some story that eluded their attention.”)
- The activists. (”Like the independent gadfly, these organized gadflies often uncover the stories that eventually make their way into the morning newspaper.”)
- The insiders. (”It’s also possible to get information directly from the interested institutions. The EveryBlock website, a fascinating online experiment, offers “microlocal” coverage of individual city blocks….”)
- The neighbors. (”Every community has its own channels of information, though these are often invisible to outsiders.”)
I particularly like Timothy Lee’s thoughts on Walker’s article: “…a few thousand newspaper reporters can’t possibly cover the news as thoroughly as millions of Internet-empowered individuals can. This isn’t to disparage the reporters and editors, who tend to be smart and dedicated. It’s just that they’re vastly outnumbered. As Jesse Walker points out, any news gathering strategy that doesn’t incorporate the contributions of amateurs is going to be left in the dust by those that do.”
Again, apologies to the non-news local bloggers in the reader’s chair. I hope that you can see how this stuff reinforces the value of what you’re doing as a local blogger, even if it doesn’t directly to your specific blog. I promise to keep sharing tips and ideas for all local bloggers as often as possible, and I welcome your thoughts in the comments.
How to Use Twitter to Find Local Blog Content
Twitter is responsible for the most popular blog post we’ve written on any of our four hyperlocal real estate blogs. Here’s how it happened, how we use Twitter as a content source for all of our local blogs, and how you can do the same.
Twitter, Kanye West, & Local Blogging
It was just about a month ago when I saw this tweet from a fellow Tri-Citian:
The link points to a blog where rap star Kanye West is shown wearing a Kamiakin Braves letterman jacket while appearing on BET television. Whoa. Major celebrity wearing the jacket of a local high school in a TV appearance??!!?? Crazy. I grabbed a couple of the photos and wrote this post on our Kennewick Real Estate Blog within 15 minutes of the original tweet.
What happened? Read more
Hyperlocal News sites are surviving … and more
I’m about a month late on this one, but it’s too good to throw out due to age. It’s a story from David Westphal at the Online Journalism Review, in which he checks in with several leading hyperlocal news sites/blogs to see how things are going in the current economy.
The overall verdict on what David admits is a small sample size? They’re surviving, and some are doing pretty darn well despite the poor economy. Here’s a bit to chew on:
Local news sites come in all sizes and shapes. Some are non-profits. Some aren’t trying to live off the operation. But for those who are, some survivable wages are being earned.
Tracy Record and Patrick Sand, another husband/wife team who operate West Seattle Blog,, are getting revenue in the high five figures. Debbie Galant, co-owner of Baristanet,, earned more from the site than she did from her free-lance writing business last year. And Bob Gough, who runs Quincy News,, pockets $1,000 a week in wages from his startup that serves an Illinois community of only 40,000.
Those are respectable numbers, I think, especially for a medium that’s so new and unfamiliar to many advertisers. I’d kinda like to be a fly on the wall at some of the pitches when these local news folks are introducing their blogs & sites to local businesses. (“You do what? And get how much traffic?”)
Seattle P-I Goes Web-only & Goes Hyperlocal
Hot off the presses: The Seattle P-I has just announced that they’re getting out of the newspaper business. Tomorrow’s will be the final print edition.
Moving forward, the P-I will be an online-only news site and … you guessed it … they’re planning to go hyperlocal:
Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said in the release the Web site “isn’t a newspaper online — it’s an effort to craft a new type of digital business with a robust, community news and information Web site at its core.”
He continued: “The Web is first and foremost a community platform, so we’ll be featuring new columns from prominent Seattle residents; more than 150 reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries. We’ll also be linking to the great work of other Web sites and blogs in the community.”
I would expect to see more of this coming in the future in other cities, big and small.
My Search Engine Land colleague Greg Sterling has this related post about the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News and its efforts to switch to a web-only news site, and asking for subscription feed to help fund their efforts.
Lots of discussion about this on Techmeme.
Hyperlocal … 5 Years from Now
“Five years from now, if someone gets mugged within a half-mile of my house, and I don’t get an e-mail alert about it within half an hour, it’ll be a sign that something is broken.”
That’s a quote from Outside.in founder Steven Johnson, speaking Friday at SXSWi. This CNET article has a lot more from his talk, including a reference by the CNET author that I could do without in paragraph three to “…amateur bloggers posting news items obsessively and continuously.” (We get no respect in some quarters.)
That’s also a good roadmap for hyperlocal bloggers everywhere. It’s something the best should be striving to make happen in our own communities.
Interviewed on Sixth Man Marketing
Ed Reese, a fellow Washingtonian who I met about a year ago and saw again at the Searchfest conference in Portland last week, recently did a short interview with yours truly about hyperlocal blogging. In it, I share a list of five benefits of local blogging, tell the never-before-told Kanye West story, and answer Ed’s question about what industries might be best suited for local blogging:
“I think it’s more about the individual and the approach than the industry you’re in. We all care about where we live, and if you remember that you’re writing a local blog — as opposed to a real estate blog, a restaurant blog, a plumbing blog, etc. — you can make it work.”
Here’s the full interview: Hyperlocal Blogging: Q&A with Matt McGee
Thx for the chance to speak with you, Ed!
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