Over the course of the last couple weeks, two hyperlocal ventures have launched in New Jersey. One gathered some ideas from the current capital of neighborhood news, right here in Seattle. Called “very much an experiment,” that venture was launched today by none other than the New York Times. About three months ago, NYT reporter Tina Kelley visited a few neighborhood sites here in the Seattle area: the West Seattle Blog, Exit 133 and our own MyBallard.com network (five neighborhood news sites, all next door to each other). Kelley has now launched a site in her own neighborhood of Maplewood, New Jersey. Another NYT staff reporter, Andy Newman, is heading up the other site in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Both sites feature contributions (gasp!) from readers, and the Times admits there’s no clear path to profitability. Which is a great first step to figuring this out.
(What advice did we offer? We urged her to convince the NYT to allow her to launch the site on its own domain with its own neighborhood brand, without NYT branding. But as you can see, that didn’t happen. But they are embracing community-powered content — to a point. The comments are pre-moderated.)
Meanwhile, Google executive Tim Armstrong has launched his personal hyperlocal project, Patch.com. Consisting of three New Jersey sites, including one in Maplewood going head-to-head with Kelley’s site, Patch is deeper than NYT’s effort, featuring a business directory, video and data mapping, to name a few. But its overhead is also deeper: 19 staffers, at our count, along with an editorial board with Jeff Jarvis and Phil Meyer — and that doesn’t include the writers. But Patch’s ultimate plans are to go nationwide.
Meanwhile, the pioneering neighborborhood news sites here in Seattle — with large audiences, dozens of advertisers and zero startup investment — have received little press coverage. And we like it that way. Most of the time.
No related posts.
Another interesting site focused on local news is AlaskaDispatch.com. It’s an indy start-up that is part blog, part news.
Interesting, Dan. What about that site is “blog” at all? It looks even less “blog” than our site (and we still have “blog” in the name, if not in any other attribute). I’ll have to look up some backstory, as it looks TOO nice to not be SOMEBODY’s fulltime job!
P.S. to Cory – our indy-news-sphere up here may not be getting conventional “press” but certainly the twitterati and media theorist/futurist types are talking about what we’re all up to, so we’re not all toiling in COMPLETE obscurity …
As for Tina, I don’t remember a whole lot of what we told her during our chat months ago, except I’m pretty sure I would have shared one of my soapbox points, which is NOT to rely too heavily on unpaid “citizen” contributors … if you turn people into REGULAR, relied-on contributors, IMO, you should pay them, “citizen” or not; otherwise, just count everything that arrives in the inbox as a surprise and a delight, and always have a stack of enterprise items at the ready, knowing there will be those days when no one’s got anything they want to share – ultimately if you decide to start a site, you’re accountable for keeping the fires stoked.
I still personally do not believe this is the business the big media companies should be in at all. Everyone’s bitching and whining about the death of investigative and other in-depth reporting; why divert existing newspaper resources from what’s left of that? If I were Newspaper Queen, I’d say move your remaining resources into more and more of the coverage you say only you can do, and let the daily micro-life of the neighborhoods be handled by the independent organizations that are either covering them now or ready to start.
And yet… I just noticed that the competition, locally for the west seattle blog and and myballard has apparently awakened from a deep slumber. Go look at
ballardnewstribune dot com
and westseattleherald dot com
They clearly have a ways to go (though in Ballard if you do a side by side comparison the BNT is beating the pants off myballard…seriously Cory…the lead story is about a coffee shop closing?)…
and I’d guess the level of competition will only increase from this point forward. Viva la competition! It’s better for everyone.
flying under the radar does have its advantages, i agree with cory.
hey #3, you ever have anything nice to say?
you must be a riot to party with… reminds me of debbie downer.
Invited…
Let me see here…I noted that a couple of “old media” sites have improved their work and I applauded the competition.
But you on the other hand resorted to a personal attack.
What would you prefer I say that hasn’t been said?
Try not to be the comment police. Offer something substantive.
yeah, whatever.
here’s a “substantive” take on your “old media” having what you term “wherewithal” in another comment section below– click my id.
where’s the wherewithal?
btw- you’ll note for the record that i purposely left both “old media” belo stocks out of that link… that shyt looks like a live snuff flick.
Sorry
Not taking the bait. Won’t click your
Id
This isn’t a binary equation.
Bloggers are NOT going completely win out
over trusted names in media everywhere.
Some big media will absolutely evolve but
It will take time and elightened management
AND an evolution in online ad pricing
to see it truly take place.
What I mean by wherewithal is that some media companies..the Las Vegas Sun comes to mind have financial backing to make the transition into a leaner more web based product (they also have the vision I might add)…but there are others that are likely to make it. The idea that an army of mom and pop operators, marshalling the mighty forces of the audience from the comfort of their laundry room will be the sustainable wave of journalism everywhere is so ludicrous that defending it makes even smart people look foolish. The way things usually turn out is that that things hybridize…they morph… as conditions and opportunities and people change. So we may see new breed of news site/show emerge that blends live television, taped pieces, even local entertainment style shows or a new kind of content syndication model, with textual backup and archives as we see broadband for the home exceed 50 mbps speeds in the next few years. If THAT model evolves you will see the rates for production of spots and the CPI model for the video ads kick in hard and provide the financial muscle for those who can MANAGE well.
Hon, your vituperation continues to shine through.
What starts in the laundry room doesn’t stay in the laundry room. Gosh, I moved to the dining table months ago. Some folks with operations smaller than ours have rented office space, although we prefer to spend that $ elsewhere. In fact, part of what makes neighborhood-based news truly work — if you cover it intensely, and many of our cohorts are more comfortable at a lower level of coverage — is not staying within 4 walls at all.
For both of us, today’s best contacts, stories, discussions all happened outside the home office. No need to return there to publish, either. The central office was even a legacy artifice in my old-media days. The newsroom-based staff sat around clusters of computers working intently; they could have done those jobs just as well, maybe better – as they’d have had a toe in the real world – from home offices, and the reporters had aircards/laptops so they never needed to come back at all.
Disagree with you on the video ads, by the way. Unless you’re going to have them all be autoplay.
Well Hon,
The actual money on the web is moving toward
1. Promotional Spending
2. Video
This according to Borrell & Associates and a series of seminars they presented last month. The online display ad…banners, boxes, and others are still relevant but clearly in decline. To the extent that blogs and other sites choose to mix advertising and editorial (“Our latest advertiser!) they can weigh in on the promotional side.
But the limitation of the web itself (not everyone uses the web and many never will)…suggests that a wide swath of people in our society will never be reached by the ever marching minute by minute news cycle of some sites.
You can disagree about video but facts are facts and opinions are just that. Borrell surveyed thousands of sites, and did their homework. While the spending on video advertising and video based directories and reference is less than the rising promotional wave, those that WILL come to the web (and those that are there) will do so in future years at far higher speeds.
Video CAN and will be a “killer app” if you will for the web when it happens in real time, on demand and integrates interactivity. Right now, many web sites are like printed radio with the occasional odd vldeo clip thrown in almost as an afterthought.
I find your posts amusing though…since invariably instead of solely addressing points made, it devolves into personal asides. Stick to the facts please.
Exactly…
Boy…..nothing new on this site in nearly 4 days!!!! This is not the Lost remote I used to love to check out every day.
There is a blog from that same area in NJ called Baristanet. Upon hearing of these new hyperlocal sites, the owners have basically taken credit for inventing the genre. There was a minor uproar from the users of the site over that claim.
So when you say ‘battleground’ you’re not far from the truth…
-JF
“Video CAN and will be a “killer app†if you will for the web when it happens in real time, on demand and integrates interactivity.”
And it has to become acceptable to watch online video at work. Otherwise, a sizeable segment of the population who might want to watch it won’t be able to.
MaplewoodOnline, an independent online community located in Patch’s target area, has been around since 1998 and has more than 8000 members. We’re probably the most connected suburb within train commute of NYC, where Patch’s offices are. That’s why Patch is here and why the NYT followed. Maybe… can never be certain.
I think your recommendation about using stand alone domains for the NY Times local are spot on. Not so sure about completely going without the brand, though.
make that “is spot on”