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The next time you think newsgathering is doomed, consider AOL and the New York Times. They both employ an arsenal of journalists and are expanding their coverage of hyperlocal news.
AOL now employs 500 journalists. In fact, the company once known for digital access and canned content hired 150 journalists last year, when nearly every other newsgathering organization was trimming jobs.
This expansion may not be the most significant for AOL. Business Insider recently reported that AOL plans to expand its network of hyperlocal news blogs, Patch, from 30 sites to hundreds by the end of the year.
(I wrote about the expansion of Patch and other hyperlocal coverage in this article.)
Meanwhile, The Local, the Times’ hyperlocal project started last year, is expanding from five sites in New York and New Jersey into the East Village of New York City. The project will be run by New York University’s journalism faculty and students through its Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, according to David Kaplan of PaidContent.org.
“The collaboration is similar to the one the Times has with the citizen journalism initiative at The City University of New York. CUNY has been involved with The Local since its inception and it was recently handed oversight for two Brooklyn sites. The East Village outpost is expected to launch in the fall,” Kaplan wrote.
So, if you are not yet convinced that hyperlocal coverage is one of most significant themes in the journalism world this year, just think of AOL and the Times. Oh, and think of CNN, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald…….
One of the first stories I reported as a young journalist in Southeast Florida focused on business owners’ “off-season” struggles. To secure the necessary interviews, I started walking along a major thoroughfare in Delray Beach and before long, came upon a small clothing business. As I walked in, I noticed a sign on the door. “Closed.” It was mid-afternoon.
“I almost didn’t come in,” I said to the owner, indicating the sign.
“Oh?” she said. “I must have forgotten to flip it over. I haven’t had a customer all day.”
Instantly, I had the opening for my story, thanks to some local-level or shoe-leather reporting.
Increasingly, media are finding such golden nuggets of local information without opening those doors, or wearing down their shoe leather.
Earlier blog posts and this article describe the value and use of hyperlocal news sources, from small business owners to residents who blog. A recent national survey from Cision, a software company that services public relations firms, and a professor at George Washington University now offers addiitional insight into the extent to which journalists are utilizing social media for their reporting.
As Jack Loechner of the Center for Media Research reports, 89 percent of the journalists surveyed said they turn to blogs for story research. In another measure, 55 percent of journalists who responded said social media was important or somewhat important to their reporting efforts.
Much of the information provided is local, up-front and personal. But not all. Social media helps journalists find such fundamental facts as the contact information for a valuable new source. Or it can offer a deeper dive, such as the viewpoint on a complicated trend.
“Newspaper journalists (72 percent) and those writing for Web sites (75 percent) use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for online research,” Loechner wrote.
This reliance on social media certainly raises questions about sourcing and accuracy. (Even though a blogger says the door sign shows “closed,” how does the reporter know that is true?)
Another question also comes to mind: If media in significant numbers are using these sources to gather information, doesn’t that mean these same channels are becoming increasingly effective tools for those who wish to provide information to the media?
Seems as if the two-way dialogue smart media are creating is rapidly coming together.
I’ve got one word for you: “hyperlocal.”
OK. So that’s a cheap ripoff of the famous line from “The Graduate” but the promise of hyperlocal may soon equal that of the “plastics” industry urged to be Dustin Hoffman’s future.
Recently, I detailed in this article how the media’s rush to increase its local connections would impact communities, accelerate the pace of news and greatly impact how business and thought leaders effectively communicate with a variety of audiences.
Now, Steve Safran of LostRemote, a blogger who covers the local media space, reports that the New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, The Tribune Co. and Dow Jones Local are forming relationships with Outside.in, the aggregator and distributor of hyperlocal information that depends on bloggers and other local sources for its extremely local news.
One newspaper editor commented to me that the race for hyperlocal content is “nearly manic” as is the search for a way to make money providing it to readers. A journalism professor commented on the ethical and accuracy concerns associated with allowing bloggers and citizen journalists to provide so much content.
It will be fascinating to watch how the media—and the businesses that use them for communications—figure this out.
Numerous media are trying new approaches to draw in readers, raise circulation and advertising revenue. Bloggers, tweeters and targeted coverage are all part of the mix.
Sometimes it’s the tried and true methods, combined with the best of the new, that work best. The New York Times has gained 1,100 readers in the Bay Area alone, thanks to a special edition and talented news team. The paper only claimed about 40,000 area readers before the new local news effort.
Pumping up coverage is one way media are trying to enhance their dialogue with readers. Here is a recent article I wrote about the fight for local readers and its impact on those they cover. Businesses and organizations seeking to connect with new and current customers are being impacted as well.
One big question in 2010: Can other media create a similar result?
