Hyperlocal 2.0
Cary, NC – After passing the one year anniversary of CaryCitizen, the editors all sat down together (a somewhat rare occurrence) to map out a strategy for Year 2.
Year 1 had been very good – 4% growth a week, 900 stories published, the establishment of our own ad space, 50,000 reads in September 2010. For Year 2, we decided to focus on making CaryCitizen sustainable. In a word, profitable.
That’s the theme of Hyperlocal 2.0 – making it a business.
The History of Hyperlocal
Wikipedia has a good definition of Hyperlocal:
“Hyperlocal content, often referred to as hyperlocal news, is characterized by three major elements. First, it refers to entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area. Secondly, it is intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area. Thirdly, it is [most often] created by a resident of the location…”
- Wikipedia [comments mine]
People began building local communities on the internet in the early 1990′s (before the World Wide Web) through bulletin boards and email lists. Remember?
Blogging hit the scene at the turn of the century (the millennium, actually). Blogger and LiveJournal launched in 1999. WordPress and MySpace launched in 2003.
The potential for Hyperlocal was there, but early blogs tended to be rants, personal diaries and niche communities.
Hyperlocal 1.0
Soon, independent publishers began getting organized to challenge traditional news organizations in the community info space. Church Hill People’s News launched in 20o4. CarrboroCitizen launched in November 2006.
Traditional media outlets also experimented with blogging. The New York Times and Harvard were early adopters of WordPress. But traditional media has largely struggled with blogging in general and hyperlocal in particular.
Hyperlocals Gain Traction
Successful, independent hyperlocal publishers are emerging around the world. Blog engines may be the appliance that powers the enterprise, but this isn’t your Cousin Ralph’s Fishing Blog. These are serious news and information platforms, engaging large portions of their local community audience.
GoHyperlocal has a great showcase of some of the best hyperlocal publications on the web.
It’s taken more than a decade for community information to grow in sophistication from BBS to hyperlocals like Eastsider LA.
In late 2010, across the world, the talk has now turned to Sustainability.
Hyperlocal 2.0
Early adopters tended to be geeks or extroverts (I might be both). But Hyper 2.0 could be titled The Rise of the Digital Entrepreneurs.
The focus is now on how to monetize the effort and the audience. Without sufficient capital flow, no business can be sustainable.
Grant organizations, notably the Knight Foundation, have expanded their programs to attract more for-profit ventures. That’s important for community-based publications, because non-profits cannot compete with established media giants. This year’s NewsChallenge specifically has a category for ideas that focus on sustainability.
Hyperlocals have the focus (their community) and the passion (most are launched with sweat equity). GoHyperlocal has a great chart:
Chart from GoHyperlocal.com
The challenge of Hyperlocal 2.0 is to find the resources to take community news to the next level – equal players in the information space.
What’s Needed to Achieve Success
1. Manage Your Own Ad Space – It’s (relatively) easy to manage your own ad space with an open source platform like OpenX. Don’t accept outside ads – they only yield a fraction of the total revenue and can also abuse access to your audience with hidden tracking programs.
2. Hire a Sales Department – This is the missing piece of the puzzle for most hyperlocals. A look at most traditional media players in my area shows about a 50/50 split on labor for editorial and labor for sales. How many hyperlocals have even one dedicated, full-time salesperson.
3. Diversify – Banner ads will never pay all the bills. Hyperlocals can add revenue by selling related services, such as building websites and publication platforms for business and community organizations.
4. Video – Television news is on no former ground than traditional newspapers. Video content is costly to produce, but hyperlocals can create it for far less than TV stations. A well-produced viral costs about $1000, likely 20 or 25% of the cost of a TV news story. And the answer is not to fire the workers, but to make use of cheaper tools like high-def consumer video cameras and editing platforms like Final Cut Pro. The reporter has to be the producer and editor. That’s how you do it. TV stations are every bit as vulnerable as newspapers to the growing wave of community journalism. I predict Hyperlocal 3.0 will be titled The Fall of Local TV Stations.
5. Unlocking Sponsorships – Newspapers and TV tend to ficus on crime, mayhem and scandal. Hyperlocals do well to take the other tack. By focusing on the positive things happening in any given audience (schools, sports, government), the hyperlocal builds the community. This is strategically important for economic development in the region to ensure the information is not unfairly negative. Hyperlocals must unlock the support of regional business leaders by making the case for a home grown voice.
What Do You Think?
Are you running a hyperlocal or studying the evolution of journalism? I’d love to hear from you. Write to me at hal@goodtreecompany.com.
[...] die achtergrond was het stuk gisteren op de site van Goodtree Company hoopgevender. Onder de kop “Hyperlocal 2.0″ (ja, hoewel het pas goed een jaar in zwang [...]
[...] Hyperlocal 2.0 Early adopters tended to be geeks or extroverts (I might be both). But Hyper 2.0 could be titled The Rise of the Digital Entrepreneurs. [...]