Hyperlocal News isn’t terrible … if you know where to look
by Matt on Dec 23, 2009 in Industry
“Noise in the ‘Hood – Why is hyperlocal news so terrible?” is the title/subtitle of a piece by Mark Gimein that was published this week on Slate’s web site, The Big Money. I’ve submitted a comment on it that hasn’t been approved yet, but also want to put some thoughts down here on HLB.
Mark’s basic premise seems to be that, well … hyperlocal news is terrible and only AOL’s Patch project seems to have a chance at making things better. He looks primarily at three sites — Everyblock.com, Examiner.com, and Topix.com, and comes to this conclusion:
The reality of the sites, though, is a scary lesson in just how dreary the local news outlook is. The new local ventures are designed to deliver more news with fewer resources. In fact, they deliver less. That in itself is not a surprise, but just how much less is a shock for anyone who bothers to actually look at what they offer.
The problem, though, is that none of those three sites — with the exception of Topix, which is moving beyond news aggregation — is really a hyperlocal news site.
I love what Everyblock does, but it’s more of a hyperlocal data provider than a news outlet. Examiner.com … don’t get me started on that. It’s just regurgitated news packaged in a Google-friendly wrapper. And as I’ve written before, Topix is becoming more of a hyperlocal content source with its recent move away from pure aggregation.
I think Mark missed the boat by focusing on those large sites. I’ve said before that hyperlocal blogging and hyperlocal news works best from the bottom up. Local bloggers care more and know more about the streets they cover than the Big Media players who are buying up dozens of domains at once and crapping out so-called “hyperlocal news sites” because it’s the hip thing to do.
In his piece, Mark admits there are some good sources of hyperlocal news, “but not so many in any one place that they benefit in any meaningful way from being pulled together into a Google News-like feed.” In the comment I left, I suggested Mark look at the hyperlocal scene in Seattle, which is so robust that the Seattle Times is partnering with five hyperlocal news sites to cover the stuff the paper just can’t get to, and where the West Seattle Blog was one of Google’s most popular search terms in 2009 in Seattle. You may not be able to get a Google-like news feed, but Bing is adding hyperlocal news content to Bing Maps in one of its new features.
Mark’s right, though, about the general lack of hyperlocal news sources. I’m so frustrated by our local scene that I’ve registered a domain name and am seriously considering launching an online-only local news site to cover this area. There’s an imbalance between hyperlocal news/blogs in big cities vs. small towns.
But hyperlocal news is not terrible … if you know where to look.
(BTW, Chris Tolles, the CEO of Topix has also blogged some his thoughts in response to the Slate/Big Money piece.)
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5 Responses to “Hyperlocal News isn’t terrible … if you know where to look”
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I predict hyper local blogging and reporting will become not only more mainstream, but the norm in the upcoming year. The newpaper companies and media owners cannot stop the force of citizen journalism.
John R. Carlisle
Hi Matt, I agree with your assessment about the article. I don’t think that these major media efforts to get into local content are a example of hyperlocal news at it’s best. Given that the writer lives in Brooklyn, arguably one of the “bloggiest” communities in the U.S. I would have expected him to recognize that there’s a big difference between Topix and the kind of news that is being provided on sites like brownstoner.com. I just don’t think that big media companies (except in rare cases like in Seattle) can really master the hyperlocal blogging thing, no matter how hard they try. Thanks for sharing the article.
Agreed, Matt. Rather than describing Everyblock as a hyperlocal news outlet, the author should have looked at how it can be used by hyperlocal news outlets. The combination of easy-to-use data with on-the-ground reporting has a lot of potential.
I think hyperlocal needs to be something different than news. A hyperlocal media service can provide a place where the conversations among residents are shared with the rest of the community. So, for example, when I recently described how some protesters were in our town center…then a police officer commented on the post to give more details–this was beneficial not only because it reported some news that no newspaper would have had time for…it also allowed the police to do their job in public in a way that helped build respect and demonstrate professionalism.
It is HARD to keep that kind of thing going though…first of all, maybe 1% of the population is going to participate actively. There are places in the country where you have a larger proportion of citizen journalists, but the reality is that someone needs to be stoking the fires constantly. My blog’s activity was directly related to how much “offline time” I invested–sending emails, making phone calls, going to meetings, etc. It’s not just about finding people to report on stuff–it is also “helping along” the conversations.
I think a better model for hyperlocal is to be found in Community Access Television. In places where that has been successful, you can bet they didn’t try to be better than CNN–they just did what the community wanted and earned respect as a niche media source.
I’m trying to figure out something that can work locally now…and I think part of the answer is to develop more of a networking partnership with local business…not to try and sell them ads, but to supplement the activities of the Chamber of Commerce and civic organizations in town. A hyperlocal media source could connect and inform a community through a mixture of news and networking. But how do we make such an entity sustainable? If you don’t sell ads…what do you do?
Thx for the comments, folks. Becca — I wouldn’t even say that the big media companies in Seattle have mastered hyperlocal. They’re just smart enough to partner with the people doing the real work on the streets.
Dave – interesting thoughts. I think hyperlocal can be many different things depending on the community and the bloggers. I’m certainly not a news blogger, but there are plenty of successful hyperlocal news blogs out there. The key is finding what works for your area, for you, and then developing an audience around it.