Comments on: Is there money in hyperlocal news?

By: Lucy

Lucy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 21:47:32 +0000

Thanks for the Information

By: Been There, Done That

Been There, Done That — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:19:44 +0000

Rex nails it, again. I appreciate what the hyperlocal/community-based folks are trying to do, and someone will figure out how to do it well soon enough. Right now, I think too many people are too afraid or too nice to point out the obvious because they’re afraid of stifling innovation and slowing progress.

I’m not nice, so I have no problem pointing out the obvious: I’ve looked at dozens of hyperlocal sites, and the content on most of them is just awful. REALLY awful.

There, I said it.

Now get back to work changing the world. I know you can do it withOUT boring me to tears….

By: Peter Ralph

Peter Ralph — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:32:20 +0000

Yes Richard - I believe that is the key: communities are built by community members.

YouTube, MySpace, Facebook were all started by insiders - people who wanted to use the service they were building.

Backfence was built by people with no understanding of the communities they were aiming to serve.

By: rex

rex — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:36:14 +0000

I talked a bit about that AJR story in an interview I recently did (click on my name to see it). As I see it, what Backfence and a ton of these other hyperlocal sites are missing is very simple: sexiness.

That is, there’s some sort of expectation that you can throw up a textarea box and a submit button, and people will supply content. Too many of these kinds of sites were started by former newspaper execs who can’t think outside their newspaper minds. Their idea of innovation is putting comments on stories.

For hyperlocal to work, it needs to contain elements that are engaging, fun, and actually different. Too many of these sites think that “information” is all that’s needed, when as the history of publishing has shown, voice really matters.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:19:41 +0000

Its like asking “Is there money in small-town weekly newspapers?” There isn’t, but people keep doing it. And hard-working operators can make a living.

The Backfence site is interesting, but it lacks one indispensible component: boots on the ground. Somebody, locally, has to have enough interest in the project to ramrod it through.

You see this so often these days. The technology allows something to be done with limited human resources applied. Sure its done half-assed, but there’s no payroll.

I would bet there are some successful hyperlocal news sites out there somewhere. I don’t know what they are, but I do know that behind the scenes is a real live human being pounding the streets.

By: tdc

tdc — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:55:20 +0000

i tried that loudounextra link yesterday when i first read that the backfence fell down… it’s a dead end.

so much for making the most of EVERY eyeball.