Presentation to Regionalmedien Austria (RMA) an Austrian media company. RMA distributes free (advertiser-funded) newspapers throughout Austria that include local, regional and national content, reaching almost 50% market saturation. (Wikipedia)

1. The hyperlocal opportunity
Damian Radcliffe
June 23rd 2016
Damian Radcliffe / @damianradcliffe

2. About Me
Journalist and researcher exploring online news,
hyperlocal and community journalism, as well as
wider trends in social media and technology.
– Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism,
School of Journalism and Communication,
University of Oregon.
– Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
– Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff School of
Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies,
Cardiff University.
Damian writes regularly about journalism and
technology for major media outlets such as
BBC, Huffington Post, MediaShift, CBS
Interactive (ZDNet) and TheMediaBriefing.

3. Running Order
1. Overview
2. Impact
3. Challenges
4. Opportunities
5. Q&A

4. Part 1: Definitions and Typology

5. Definition
“Online news or content services pertaining to a
town, village, single postcode or other small,
geographically defined community.”
Damian Radcliffe (March 29, 2012)
"Here and Now: UK hyperlocal media today".

6. Many different types of site

7. Different size patches
Town / City Visit Horsham: http://www.visithorsham.co.uk/
Blog Preston: http://blogpreston.co.uk/
Pegasus News: http://www.pegasusnews.com/ (Dallas-Fort Worth)
Village Parwich.org: http://parwich.org/
Bournville: http://bournvillevillage.com/
Postcode / Ward SE1: http://www.london-se1.co.uk/
HU17: http://www.hu17.net/
Greater Jackson Ward: http://www.gjwn.net/news/ (Richmond, VA)
Defined community
e.g. estate, area, or niche
geographic community of
interest
Weir Estate, Lambeth: http://www.wera.org.uk/
Clapham: http://www.loveclapham.com/
Leith: http://www.greenerleith.org/
Irish Philadelphia: http://irishphiladelphia.com/
Capitol Fax: http://capitolfax.com/ (News for Illinois political insiders)

8. Varying Production Models
Created via a range of different production models, including:
1. Professional – websites run as a full-time operation, often by journalists
e.g. OnTheWight and InDenver Times
2. Citizen run/produced – produced by citizens, often alongside a day job
e.g. PitsnPots and Duke City Fix (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
3. Hybrid – sites combining the input of trained journalists and citizen input
e.g. Lichfield Blog and Lakeland Local (Florida)
4. Aggregator/Automated – owners typically do not write any content.
e.g. Planet Balham or Windy Citizen (Chicago)

9. … and different funding models
• Online Advertising
• Printed What’s On Guide (SE1)
• Printed Newspaper (Brixton Bugle)
• Social Media Services (Oakland Local)
• Copywriting (Caerphilly Observer)
• eBooks (Londonist)
• Property supplement (HU17.net)
• Weekly newsletter (ChiswickW4.com)
• Groupon and local deals (Caerphilly Observer)

10. Driven be a range of motives
• Filling gaps (content/geographic)
• Entrepreneurial journalists
• Civic minded citizens and/or journos
• Bigger media groups / profit seekers

11. Hyperlocal graveyard

12. Just some examples worth a look.

13. Bottom Line
There is no one size
fits all solution.
And no such thing as a
typical hyperlocal site.
They’re all different.

14. Cross-cultural synergies

15. Reminder: why this matters
1. Hold authority to account.
2. Reflect – and define – communities.
3. First draft of history.
4. Training ground for national outlets.
5. Small local stories often become big national ones.

16. Founder Tracy Record
recently told Poynter, says success is simple:
"We listen. When readers start to ask about a
particular type of thing we hadn’t been covering
… that’s a signal to us that it’s time to start
covering. But that means you have to have a
relationship with the community."

17. Part 2: 10 examples of impact

18. 1. Holding authority to account
Local publishers have:
• Reported on by-elections
• Used open data to act as “armchair auditors” and
• Live reported from council and planning meetings
General Election Coverage:
Many of them actively covered #GE2015 /Brexit.
• Provided a tier of local reporting mainstream media cannot
• Cover – and report from – Parish Council meetings and elections
All areas increasingly overlooked by other media outlets.

19. 2. Campaigning
• Brixton Blog’s successful Save the Lambeth Country Show
• Hedon Blog’s ‘Hedon Pong’ campaign – saw Yorkshire Water
invest £3.5m in odour control + provide compensation in the
form of a £50,000 community grants fund
Data suggests a third of hyperlocal
publishers have run local campaigns

21. 3. Civic Engagement
• Report problems
• Engage directly with officials
• Rise of civic tech movement

22. 4. Giving communities a voice
Forums engage communities big and small.
Since 2002, 180,000 people have produced
nearly 7.6 million posts, on over half a million
topics, on Sheffield Forum.

23. Daily stories about life in Spitalfields, East London. http://spitalfieldslife.com/
Focus on human interest stories and ultra-local history.
Ambition to author 10,000 posts.
“At the rate of one a day, this will take approximately twenty-seven years and
four months. Who knows what kind of life we shall be living in 2037 when I write
my ten thousandth post?”
“Your blog has become a daily joy I look forward to savouring. It’s a bit like a grown-up (and
sometimes not-so grown-up) advent calendar. I open it with the same anticipation…”
“I love you gentle author. I read Spitalfields Life when my heart is worn. It makes me think of
you and how remarkable the beauty. 2037 indeed. Hope I’m here.”
5. Local Storytelling

24. 6. Providing useful information
• Bournville News took public information but presented it in a useful way,
producing a map of Birmingham City Council gritting routes in Bournville.
“I thought the potential grit shortage
might mean that some roads would stop
getting gritted should the cold spell
continue and knowing which roads were
meant to be gritted would be useful
knowledge.
‘Will my road get gritted?’ is an easy
question to answer since the City Council
has a alphabetical list of all the roads that
are gritted in order of priority.”
(Quotes from Dave Harte.)

26. 7. Reflecting cultural identity
• “Voices from the Motherland” strand on Digbeth is Good
• British Library is creating an archive of these sites, to act as
a digital record of life in these communities in the future

27. 8. Promoting civic pride

28. 9. Plugging gaps
Covering geographic areas – like the village of Parwich in
Derbyshire – or towns like Port Talbot deserted, or deemed too
small / uncommercially viable to cover, by mainstream media.

29. 10. Old-school local reporting
• Traditional news
• Sport
• Events
• Arts,
• Links to local services
• Property
• Food and drink features
• What’s on guides
All mainstays of traditional local media.

30. Part 3: Challenges

31. 1. Core problems remain
• Discoverability.
• Funding / Commercial Viability.
• Sustainability ($ and personnel).

32. 2. Representation
• Collective voice for lobbying, ad buys etc.
• LION in the USA.
• UK work in progress…

33. 3. Size of market
• No registration / license process.
• Sites can quickly come… and go.
• Social media only operations also hard to find.

34. 4. Under-reported impact
• Civic benefits
• Social Capital
• Non-market/content
• Conversations elsewhere

35. 5. Boots on the ground
• Automation and outsourcing part of the future.
• BUT need to be transparent.
• Journatic / Chicago Tribune (2012) how not to do it…

36. Other issues in the UK
• Relationship with the BBC (credits/payment,
training, access to archive and more).
• Encouraging tech companies to make this content
more discoverable.
• Union accreditation and recognition.
• Insurance and Liability cover.
• New Press regulation regime.
• Access to statutory notice funds (£45m - £50m ad
spend a year) and local health campaigns.

37. Part 4: Opportunities

38. “Local and hyperlocal websites can potentially
also be good for maintaining local identity and
can provide healthy scrutiny and discussion of
local democracy and local issues, which is to be
encouraged,” stated the House of Commons Culture, Media
and Sport Committee in 2010.

39. 1. New voices. New stories.
• New entrants to industry.
• Stories which would otherwise go unreported.
• Better serve information starved communities.

40. 2. Partnerships
• Joint campaigns / investigations.
• Two-way story sharing/linking.
• Personnel swaps.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Graffiti vandals cost public millions
Tim McCarthy, a graffiti ranger for
Seattle Public Utilities, paints over
graffiti in West Seattle. McCarthy
predicted this spot would be tagged
again within a week. Seattle Public
Utilities spent about $1 million last year
attacking graffiti; King County Metro
Transit spent $734,000.
Photo: STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

41. 3. Tech enabled content
• Served by location (GPS trigger).
• News, history, coupons.
• Opt in.

42. 4. Civic Tech
• Great source of content / ideas.
• Empowers communities + makes a difference.
• Embeddable on local sites.

43. 5. Journalism in new places
• WhatsApp and Messenger Apps
• News Alerts
• Wearables

44. On-going questions
• Role in promoting News + Media Literacy.
• Tapping into the public / sensor data explosion.
• Drive to Digital Government – how can sector help?
• Role in supporting digital inclusion (esp. older audiences).
• What is the role of hyperlocal in the journalism ecosystem?

45. Thanks for
listening
Questions?
www.damianradcliffe.com
www.slideshare.net/mrdamian
www.twitter.com/damianradcliffe
www.linkedin.com/in/damianradcliffe