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Who Will Cover 'Hyperlocal' Online?

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Could be beneficial to both

5/30/2002 3:54:06 AM
Posted By: Rick Brown

I think the partnership idea could benefit both sides if it's executed with that in mind. Under such an arrangement, the regional paper wouldn't reproduce the local content of the community paper en masse, but might, for example, offer vastly condensed versions of some of the top local items which might interest residents outside the immediate area covered thoroughly by the community paper. (If I live nearby or used to live there, I might want brief highlights, but not care about detail. Or area residents might be interested in news of upcoming entertainment events in a nearby community, but not care about the town council and club news.) Conversely, the regional paper could provide a brief summary of top regional stories that might interest the community paper's readers who wouldn't otherwise care to seek out the full details. (They may rely on TV and radio news for that information now.) The content swap details and any potential monetary compensation beyond promotional value would have to be worked out to the benefit of both papers, each of which could maintain its dominance in its core coverage under such an arrangement.

partnership - not likely!

5/28/2002 2:41:14 PM
Posted By: Peyton Larson

You suggest a partnership model with "locally owned and operated community news sites, sharing some content and revenue with the regional paper and benefiting from in-paper promotion." Maybe I'm missing your point, but why should community papers or news sites - with vastly smaller resources, both in terms of staff and budgets, share the one thing they have to offer readers - local, local, local - with a regional paper? Regional papers are better equipped financially to do the difficult work of local coverage but chose instead to put their reporting priorities elsewhere. To suggest that for the privilege of this "partnership" the community news sites should share revenue with the big boys in exchange for "in-paper promotion" shows a disconnect not only with the economic realities of community papers, but also an overestimated value of a regional paper's influence in a local community. It sounds like this 'partnership' is a golden opportunity for one half of the equation and it ain't the community - nor the community paper nor web site.
Let me suggest this: If community coverage is so valuable, perhaps the editors of regional papers should rethink where they allocate their own resources instead of trying to take bread from their little sisters.

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