“Lots of media outlets cover what’s happening across the world, nation, state or even a major metropolitan area. The problem is that people care most about what’s happening in their own neighborhoods.” —The Wall Street Journal
Enter the hyperlocal: a new, highly focused breed of community paper, full of reader contribution. The model is having quick success across the country. The Online Journalism Review reports:
“In Bakersfield, California, the Northwest Voice has already over 500 people submit articles or photos. In Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, students at Northwestern University launched GoSkokie to study how citizen media sites might operate with little editorial oversight. In Columbia, Missouri, students at the University of Missouri launched MyMissourian in affiliation with the student-run daily newspaper and with a miracle budget near $0.”
Many eyes are on Bluffton Today, a hyperlocal, colorful, tabloid-size newspaper distributed free to every home in Bluffton, South Carolina (16,500 circulation).
Bluffton Today, which Garcia Media helped Morris Communications create, has in-depth stories, short, information-packed pieces, police logs, little league stats, local business coverage—everything readers clamor for in a community paper. But the paper has a unique voice: the voice of the reader.
That’s because the Bluffton Today is tightly tied into a Web site (www.blufftontoday.com) where readers post news items, share photos, recipes, opinions, and even have their own blogs. Highlights of these contributions are worked into the printed edition, creating a powerful conversation with the reader.
“Newspapers have gone on the Web by putting yesterday’s news online,” said Steve Yelvington of Morris. “That’s a one-way street. We are doing the opposite; participation is right at the center of what we’re doing.”
Mary Lou Fulton of the Northwest Voice agrees: “We are the traditional journalism model turned upside down. “Instead of being the gatekeeper, telling people that what’s important to them ‘isn’t news,’ we’re just opening up the gates and letting people come on in. We are a better community newspaper for having thousands of readers who serve as the eyes and ears for the Voice, rather than having everything filtered through the views of a small group of reporters and editors.”