washingtonpost.com reports on the ongoing issues at backfence.com, the hyperlocal cj news site in their own backyard. Backfence kicked off the first communities in beltway suburbs McLean and Reston back in 2005, but has had trouble attracting enough users to get the site to click both in terms of contributions and, subsequently, in revenue. While they managed to secure some decent venture capital, recent departures of key executives, including one of the founders, signals serious trouble. LR pal Vin Crosbie is quoted in the article, “Realistically, it’s going to take close to 10 years for the business models to be there and for there to be enough advertisers willing to give money to hyperlocal start-ups. Backfence’s problem is that it was too early.”


