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Do You Have a Print Strategy?

by Matt McGee on Sep 27, 2010 in Blogging | 5 Comments

thumbprint-smOkay, local bloggers/journalists/webmasters, here are the questions before you:

1.) Do you have a print version of your local news site/blog?

2.) Have you ever considered doing a print version?

3.) Do you think it’s a good or bad idea to also have a print version of your blog?

I’m curious mainly because of this recent article in The Guardian about HU17.net, a hyperlocal site covering Beverley, England. Paul Smith is producing a 28-page, full color print version that is published every Tuesday — about 100 copies, the article says — and is distributed to “bars, barbers, and social clubs.”

Could you see yourself doing something similar? Here’s a quick poll. Don’t know how many replies you guys will give me, but I’m curious to gauge how many are doing this.

Comments are open if you’d like to expand on your vote. If you’re not doing a print version, why not?

September 27, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging | 5 Comments 

Hyperlocal News Roundup

by Matt McGee on Sep 26, 2010 in Industry | Leave a Comment

newsstandAnother big list of links from the last week or so, including a few pieces about the Block by Block conference in Chicago at the end of the week. Was expecting more coverage of that, actually. Maybe it’ll happen during the coming week, since the conference wrapped up on Friday afternoon.

September 26, 2010 | Filed Under Industry | Leave a Comment 

NearSay Curates Hyperlocal News in NYC

by Matt McGee on Sep 24, 2010 in Industry | 1 Comment

NearSay just launched this week with a hyperlocal focus on an already crowded area: New York City. Here’s a look at the home page on this late Friday afternoon:

nearsay

There are already a ton of hyperlocal blogs and news sites covering New York City, but NearSay says it’s taking a different approach — the curation of news from other sources. In an email this week, co-founder Trevor Sumner described NearSay as

“…a mix of curated neighborhood news (hand-picked by our editors) and prominent user contributions (from community members). We are not an aggregator. We are humans who use aggregators and many other sources to hand-select only the best neighborhood news.”

NearSay hits the ground with 80 contributors and their contributions get ranked to determine the site’s most “influential n-siders.” There’s even an influencer leaderboard that can be sorted by topic and/or neighborhood. Interesting. Not an idea that would fly in smaller cities, I’m afraid (my area doesn’t have enough “influencers” to contribute to such a thing, much less be ranked on a leaderboard), but it could work in the Big Apple and other larger cities.

I do like the idea of curating content, and think there’s a lot of value in that approach especially in crowded areas with a lot of content being produced. So, best of luck to the NearSay team. It’ll be interesting to watch how the site fares.

September 24, 2010 | Filed Under Industry | 1 Comment 

Reading Blogs: More Mainstream; Blogging: Not So Much

by Matt McGee on Sep 24, 2010 in Blogging, Industry | 2 Comments

Some interesting stats out this week from eMarketer about the penetration of both blog reading and blog writing in the U.S. In a blog post earlier this week, eMarketer says more than half of all Internet users in the U.S. will read blogs at least once a month this year. Their forecast says that number will hit 60% by 2014.

blog stats

Blogging, on the other hand, will continue to be the work of the few: eMarketer says about 12% of U.S. Internet users will update a blog at least monthly this year, and only 13.3% by 2014. We’re the minority. Not too surprising, especially with many “regular folks” finding it much easier to maintain a Facebook or Twitter presence and using that for sharing content.

There’s another important distinction to be made, and I’m glad to see it was mentioned in the eMarketer article: Going forward, the distinction between a blog and a web site will be harder to make. It’s already difficult in many cases, and you could argue it’s a completely unneeded distinction. Says eMarketer:

But there is a caveat to this forecast: Over time, blogs will continue to become indistinguishable from other media channels.

I already foresee the day when I need to change the name of this blog you’re reading now. It won’t be Hyperlocal Blogger. It’ll be … something that doesn’t force a distinction on blogging.

September 24, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Industry | 2 Comments 

Block by Block Conference Streaming Live

by Matt McGee on Sep 23, 2010 in Industry | 1 Comment

I had hoped to attend the Block by Block hyperlocal conference which is now underway in Chicago. If you couldn’t make it, either, or maybe didn’t even know about it, it’s okay — you can watch online.

It’s streaming live online right now.

The conference continues through Friday afternoon.

September 23, 2010 | Filed Under Industry | 1 Comment 

Hyperlocal News Roundup

by Matt McGee on Sep 19, 2010 in Industry | 2 Comments

newsstandThis is the MEGA edition of the hyperlocal news roundup — 20+ links below that should include something of interest to most anyone. This is what happens when you combine cross-country travel with getting sick as soon as you get home. Ugh. That’s how I’ve spent the past 8-10 days. Hope yours have been better.

Of particular note in the list is the journalist’s guide to jobs at Patch, which I found a pretty interesting read.

September 19, 2010 | Filed Under Industry | 2 Comments 

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