‘How important is local, really?’

Poynter blogger Amy Gahran takes issue with a Knight Commission study that in part focuses on the democracy of information in local communities. “It seems to me that with the way the media landscape has been evolving, geographically defined local communities are becoming steadily less crucial from an information perspective,” she argues, adding that economic status, common interests, social circles and the like are “far more relevant to more people.” I think she has a point here — that trying to be all things to all local people, much like local TV newscasts, dilutes relevancy in a world where we can access any information we want on the web. (And for local TV websites, which can offer that on-demand relevancy, are left to republish these broader TV stories.) But I also want to add that when you zoom from the DMA level down to the neighborhood level, relevancy increases beyond just economic status, common interests and social circles. So from that “hyperlocal” perspective, local can be the most relevant of all.