I wrote this back in May:
“I don’t understand why newspapers haven’t split off half their reporters to neighborhoods (requiring them to live there) and launching a network of hyperlocal news sites that all seamlessly feed back to their core site with an integrated CMS. (Beat reporters, meanwhile, would categorize their stories across relevant neighborhoods.) Having a neighborhood reporter is a powerful idea, especially when that reporter covers the small stuff in short form. This forms a relationship and an online community that generates more tips and a larger aggregate audience.”
And now the former managing editor of the Denver Post wrote this:
“Instead of spending time bemoaning how my owners are going to kill my paper, I’d make real sure that the people on my staff were covering news relevant to the communities where subscribers live. I’d fire a third of the editors and convert another third of them to being reporters and give them a laptop. I’d send all my reporters home with a laptop. I would tell each of them his beat is now a circle with a radius of 12 blocks and the center of the circle is his house. I want to know everything that happens within those 12 blocks.”
Similar idea, different perspective (although he suggests a minimum of one story per day, and I would take the blog approach, with a minimum of 3-4 shorter posts.) Regardless, I think there’s real merit with the idea of a neighborhood reporter — someone who people know who becomes the community “moderator.” I’ll have much more on this in the next few weeks when I reveal a project that I’ve been working on recently.
