Hyper local news will work with community input in some places, but I think most attempts will require paid contributors/journalists.

It might be worth a try to seed the site with ringers, quietly hiring a dozen or so community residents (NOT professional writers) to start the ball rolling by making posts and generating conversations among themselves on their own pet topics, keeping them at it for however long it takes to motivate others to join in.

There was an article in the NYTimes yesterday about a company called AmericanTowns.com that’s trying to start local sites all over the country. I was surprised to find a site already in existence for my town, but disappointed to see that it had been set up to look as though it were a going concern when there was as yet no local participation, and where the as-yet empty areas reserved for reader contributions were a couple of layers deep into the site. It wasn’t at all inviting.

If readers can see immediately–prominently on the home page–that their fellow community members are creating content, I think they’re much more likely to be drawn in.

They left out the part that the readers want someone else to create the content, as they’re too busy to do it themselves.