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Local/hyperlocal Archive
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The places that the tablets can’t reach
Rupert Murdoch’s reputation as a media visionary might have taken a battering in recent months. His famed enthusiasm for iPads as a news deliver device, however, is beginning to look as if it might yet prove to be as shrewd as his gamble as the one that he made on subscription tv two decades ago. [...] -
From cooperation to crowd-funding: The case of Port Talbot
Report by Alex Klaushofer. Its bleak industrial landscape was the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, with its population of diverse life-forms evolving new ways of being in the struggle for survival. And now, Port Talbot’s bleak media landscape is … You get the idea. While on the one hand, Port Talbot is the perfect [...] -
Local press: adrift without a compass and in danger of disappearing
I met the editor of one of Britain’s oldest regional dailies at a social event recently. We chatted about the worrying state of the media and with a resigned sigh he said: “I am hoping that the paper will see me out”. He is in his mid-50s and the title he edits has been published [...] -
Charitable model could save local news
Guest blog by David Ainsworth. Recently a group of my colleagues and I became interested in the idea of creating a charitable local newspaper. The reason for this was simple. Local newspapers are important, but they are also in trouble. It’s time to try out a new model. Those of us who’ve worked in local [...] -
Patch takes on the ‘hood’
Case study by Tim Dawson. When Alex Trebek, the host of US tv show Jeopardy fell chasing a burglar last week he gave Patch.com one of their biggest stories of the year. The San Francisco site of the national hyperlocal news network got the story. News of the silver-haired 71 year old taking up chase [...] -
News from your street served up by a ‘publishing visionary’
Case study by Tim Dawson. Postcodegazette’s aim is to create a virtual newspaper for every street in Britain. Using mobile technology to map the location of its audience, it focuses on news so local that readers are interested in cars being scratched and the exam results of neighbours’ children. Users of the service – which [...] -
Hard data shatters hyperlocal dream
Report by Alex Klaushofer. When hyperlocal publisher Chris Thomas was casting about for a topic for his postgraduate research, he decided to investigate some of the claims about the rise of hyperlocalism, and come up with some hard data about who is using them, and why. ‘There’s a lot of hype about hyperlocals, but there’s [...] -
Old model for new journalism – weekly paper proves sustainable
Case study by Alex Klaushofer. You could call it the new traditionalism. The Cleethorpes Chronicle is a rare beast – a weekly local newspaper, a start-up bucking the trend of the decline of print, launched in the teeth of recession and funded by advertising. The paper was founded in March 2008 by editor Nigel Lowther [...] -
Hyperlocalism – the next landgrab?
Comment by Alex Klaushofer. If the rhetoric is to be believed, hyperlocalism is the most promising trend the digital age has brought journalism. There are now hundreds of websites around the country, bringing local communities unprecedented levels of news gathered by newly-empowered citizen journalists. With their scrutiny of the local and celebration of the particular, [...] -
US hyperlocal fails to monetise
By Alex Klaushofer. Leading US hyperlocal TBD is downsizing, slashing its staff and dumping its news coverage in favour of local entertainment and lifestyle content. The decision by the Washington-based site will come as a disappointment to watchers of the hyperlocal model. Launched last summer as a pioneering model for local newsgathering, the site quickly [...]