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< Back to listMaking Hyperlocal Work
Pete Sigrist
It was announced yesterday that The Local, a hyperlocal media experiment run by the New York Times, is closing down.
The traditional media has been trying to make hyperlocal work, as they can see it’s one area where news may retain value. Unlike the big stories of the day, such as what footballers’ wives are wearing, local news is unlikely to be served to people via a trending topic on Twitter, or a status update from a friend on Facebook.
Hyperlocal in the UK
While the experiments continue this side of the pond, there's a dearth of clear success for media companies trying their hand at hyperlocal. Northcliffe, the local part of the DMGT, announced earlier this year it is expanding The Local People network, suggesting hyperlocal is working for them.
A quick look at the site for my own local area, batterseapeople.co.uk, shows that it’s a model based not on trained writers, but user-generated content, local business directories and reviews. It’s also a social network, with the ability to sign up, join groups and follow people.
The problem is, you can already do all these things elsewhere. Judging by the photos that come up, not many people are yet using the site. And why would people feel the need to join yet another social network, or provide reviews on yet another review site? Still – as a cost-light concept, there’s something in this.
Doing it for the people
Guardian Local, currently live in Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh, has taken a different tack. The Guardian set out to hire local bloggers as reporters, reducing the cost of news delivery. The question was, can the quality of reporting be maintained, ensuring the sites remain relevant? At present, the sites have taken varying approaches, with Leeds using a series of guest bloggers, and Edinburgh depending on the services of blogger and former journalist Tom Allen for most of its content.
The jury remains out on Guardian Local, but it would be nice to see such an editorial-led approach work, not least because it provides genuine civic value. The sites help local residents keep tabs on their elected councillors, providing prominent information about contacting them, and focusing on investigative reporting of local issues.
Bypassing the journalists
Perhaps hyperlocal success is less likely to come from trained writers than from location-based networks such as Foursquare. Such services allow people I know to recommend local services (or warn me against them), with information provided based on my location, ensuring it is relevant. There’s an obvious commercial angle here too, with local businesses able to make special offers to passersby or regular customers.
Some location-based services, such as Fix My Street from MySociety, set out to provide a social good. This service allows people to take photos of problems on their street and report them direct to local councils in a single tap of a mobile screen. It’s very smart, powered using Ordinance Survey and Yahoo! location data, and could actually make council services more efficient, by crowdsourcing information on what needs fixed on the streets.
It’s easy to imagine location-based services like these allowing people to pass local news peer-to-peer, or start hyperlocal petitions using mobile apps, delivering a powerful and important service that would traditionally have been delivered via the local media.
Is it an obvious thing to say that people might find they get more value from hyperlocal reviews, special offers and petitions, than from journalists or professional bloggers?
Posted by Pete Sigrist
Comments...
When is the Like button coming to this blog?
If you have fixed hyperlocal content creation and fixed hyperlocal content consumption you get a very small market. So small there is likely not to be critical mass for quality, fairness, accuracy, volume etc.
To reach critical mass, at least oneof the parties needs to be transitional. Transitional means people passing through could update a hyperlocal site for the benefit of a fixed consuming audience, or vice versa. Or both consumers and creators may be transitional.
More than even a few hyperlocal sites is overwhelming. For this to work we need a single platform that manages hyperlocal data. At the moment the closest thing we have then is FourSquare, as Pete says.
With some improvement this could be the future. This is how it could work: mugging in area on way home - local witnesses upload photos of scene, statements. Statistics curated by open source (think wiki) editors. Police can contact witnesses through social media. Removes the need for real life "Can you help?" signs. Post them online everytime a new person goes past.
Apply to all content at will.
If you have fixed hyperlocal content creation and fixed hyperlocal content consumption you get a very small market. So small there is likely not to be critical mass for quality, fairness, accuracy, volume etc.
To reach critical mass, at least oneof the parties needs to be transitional. Transitional means people passing through could update a hyperlocal site for the benefit of a fixed consuming audience, or vice versa. Or both consumers and creators may be transitional.
More than even a few hyperlocal sites is overwhelming. For this to work we need a single platform that manages hyperlocal data. At the moment the closest thing we have then is FourSquare, as Pete says.
With some improvement this could be the future. This is how it could work: mugging in area on way home - local witnesses upload photos of scene, statements. Statistics curated by open source (think wiki) editors. Police can contact witnesses through social media. Removes the need for real life "Can you help?" signs. Post them online everytime a new person goes past.
Apply to all content at will.
It is unlikely that i'm going to searchSince information for hyperlocal sites is limited (currently)
The problem with traditional media companies attempts at hyperlocal is that they are often obsessive about not stepping on the toes of their traditional operations. Northcliffe's Local People is the perfect example of this. Whilst this model may get some traction it does not provide a sufficiently compelling total package to by ultimately successful in my opinion. There needs to be a balance between quality reporting and user generated content blended with accurate local information (business directory, events, weather, property info etc).
We are having a good go at 'Making Hyperlocal Work" for a relatively small community (total population circa 5,000) with some success at www.alderleyedge.com - its captured the majority of the local audience and advertising is sold out at competitive CPM rates. The constraining factor on its commercial viability will always be its audience size by we think with a network of local sites within the same area the numbers add up.
The best hyperlocal propositions i've seen across the pond is the network of sites Patch.com is putting together. If you are not familiar with them they are worth a look.
The thing is with sites like batterseapeople is that they're not hyperlocal enough. That's still a large area. I think where hyperlocal really works is when a group of residents get together to produce something that brings their street, or their block together. Something like http://www.stroudgreen.org/ kind of gets there.
As you say though Pete, there's not much in this for media - it's all user generated.
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