More newspapers go “hyperlocal” in search of dollars and new avenues of communication

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.

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