We think 2010 will be a big year for independent news startups (note the newly added category here on LR) and we continue to find evidence supporting this assumption. The latest comes from a post by Andria Krewson on MedisShift: 5 Recent Big Moves In Hyper-Local News. The lede:
The pace of change for hyper-local news sites and related businesses is dizzying. It’s hard to keep up, especially if you try to pay attention to business moves made by large players, as well as innovations that bubble up from local, independent news sites.
Krewson made the following list of significant recent moves to provide context. Visit MediaShift for Krewson’s analysis on each one, or click the headlines below to re-visit LR coverage and comments.
- Datasphere raised $10.8 million
- Outside.in raised $7 million
- U.S. Local partners with L.A. Times
- The New York Times partners with CUNY
- Patch.com expands recruiting
I would add the recent moves of major media companies in the direction of local, including MSNBC.com’s acquisition of Everyblock last year, NBC, ESPN and NPR launching new local initiatives and the continued push by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to get even more local. This space will continue to be fascinating because of the mix of organic, grass-roots efforts that show promise and the big companies’ continued attempts to replicate those efforts with scale. Expect a lot more moves in 2010.
