There are a number of new or re-energized hyperlocal efforts out there, trying to crack the code. New efforts are expected shortly from Outside.in and SmallTown. Ongoing efforts are being made with AmericanTowns, which counts Idearc as a lead investor; and Dallas’ Pegasus News, which is owned by Fisher Communications. CitySquares in Boston continues to build its model. Topix has also remade itself into an aggregation of local news and hyperlocal commenting.
And that’s just a rundown of the hyperlocal efforts that have regional ad national aspirations. Some of the best hyperlocal efforts, of course (BaristaNet, WestportNow) are actually tied to specific communities. We also count some well-funded newspaper efforts in that category (LA Times, Boston.com, Washington Post et al).
This week, The Online Journalism Review covers OurTown, a new hyperlocal chain based in Cincinnati. The site proclaims that it represents “America’s Local Websites. Neighborhood by Neighborhood. Local and Regional Content, Chat, Weather, Maps, Personal & Family Calendar and Community.”
OurTown’s primary business concept is that local editors will sell the local advertising, keeping most of the revenue. $100 monthly contracts for advertising are envisioned. The site will also have paid classifieds (but free classifieds for individuals)
In addition to local ad dollars, the editors will also get 40 percent of national ad dollars. It is suggested that local editors covering two zip codes can make between $45,000 and $60,000 per year.
Eventually, OurTown expects to charge a license fee to the local editors, but as a come on, it is offering a one year license for free to the first 1,000 takers. Seventy thousand sites are expected in Year One. The site is being advertised on Google, Yahoo, Craigslist and other websites. While an illustrious advisory board of “top journalists” is claimed, there is no link to such a board on the site, or names of management, for that matter.
Like others before it, OurTown is going to find that franchising, ad sales, content and audience building are the hard part (i.e. everything).
OurTown’s design is terrible. Completely unusable layout for the city view.
Looks like design is harder than franchising, ad sales, content, and audience building
I want hyperlocal, community-fueled news sites to work as much as anyone else, but this is a joke. The site is a mess, the aggregation and matching is terrible, and there’s just no way this will ever take off.
I tried to access their site and received an error:
Session Ver 3.0 – DB_Open -Cannot open database “Sessions” requested by the login. The login failed.(Microsoft SQL Native Client) error ’800a03e9′
Session Ver 3.0 – DB_Open -Cannot open database “Sessions” requested by the login. The login failed.(Microsoft SQL Native Client)
/inc\authentication.inc, line 158
I’m an avid supporter of the hyperlocal movement (I should be, I’m involved in a startup myself!) and hope these sites take off. What we are doing is similar to smalltown.com’s website, which I think is an incredible start to what can be. I agree with the above, Ourtown indeed needs some work, hopefully they can improve and grow in tandem with everyone else.
Peter: Good rundown of would-be city sites. Add to the mix MinnPost, CrossCut, Voice of San Diego and New Haven Independent. All kinds of flavors out there. I’m finding a curious mix of largely non-profit sites on the one hand and those seeking the riches of the local market on the other, with precious little cross-fertilization at this early stage.
For sites that do see their work as local journalism, there is some ad money to support them, but not much to support a significant professional staff — yet. So we’re seeing NPR-like memberships and angel funding to fill that gap, as these sites seek to establish themselves.
My bet: Only the best will survive, and they’ll be networked, sooner or later.
Our Town is essentially a bunch of RSS widgets pulling in RSS news feeds. Look it up on widgetbox.com
I wouldn’t call this hyperlocal. I would call this automated feeds.
The trick to hyperlocal is taking a community and giving it a real voice. We have successfully done this with our model
http://www.LocalsGuide.com
In which we have created a hyperlocal portal which produces a monthly web 2 print publication.
We mix a social network engine with media creation… creating a hyperlocal media machine.
Hyperlocal is gonna take the voice of people.
To the nay sayers, there are local Our Town editors who are infusing their sites with hands on accounting of what is going on in their town. Most of the previous bad comments on Our Town above were made while the site was in beta testing. They continue to make improvements and have made this site very easy to use. I have only owned my site for four months and while there are local RSS feeds infused into it, it is also full of local articles. My site is a one stop shop. You can get local, state and national news, and leave a photo of what happened down the street at the same time. http://www.nampaid.ourtown. Everything is hard work, but hard work will pay off.