Comments on: Hyperlocal News isn’t terrible … if you know where to look

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:57:03 +0000

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.

By: Dave Atkins

Dave Atkins — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:05:11 +0000

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?

By: John Hawbaker

John Hawbaker — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:19:37 +0000

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.

By: Becca

Becca — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:31:01 +0000

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.

By: John R Carlisle

John R Carlisle — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:41:08 +0000

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