There has been an explosion of writing and scholarship over the last several years about the potential of hyperlocal news as a viable business strategy for newspapers and news-gathering organizations. Two articles, in particular, helped me to understand and analyze the promise and the pitfalls of hyperlocal news. The first was "Local and Niche Sites," a chapter of a 2011 report by the Columbia Journalism Review about the Business of Digital Journalism. The second was a 2011 article in the American Journalism Review about "Hyperlocal Heroes" that provided good in-depth description and analysis of some of the most successful hyperlocal news sites.
Hi Greg, these are good resources.
ReplyDeleteFrom a UK perspective you might be interested in my 2012 landscape report: http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/creative_economy/destination_local/assets/features/here_and_now_uk_hyperlocal_media_today - which was used to kickstart a $1.6m fund for new ideas by the NESTA, an innovation agency.
They also published some recent, and very interesting, data on demand in the UK for hyperlocal media: http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/uk_demand_for_hyperlocal_media
Previously there hadn't been much interest in this space, but that's grown over the last year: http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-commentary/-hyperlocal-media-is-coming-in-from-the-cold-/s6/a552844/
Hope these links are useful.
Damian
@damianradcliffe