Category: Hyperlocal
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NESTA Destination Local – initial reaction to funded projects
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article for the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network about Destination Local in which I outlined my view that the hyperlocal sector would be better helped by small amounts of money, with less stringent criteria, aimed directly at independent hyperlocals rather than any tom, dick or harry with the…
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Northcliffe’s Local People: It’s not working, let’s shift the risk
Good news! Northcliffe has realised that it’s Local People network model is flawed and has decided to try and shift the risk onto naive entrepreneurs instead. Maybe I’m just being optimistic given my well-known loathing of Local People but it’s as if Northcliffe have decided that receiving £7k for each new Local People site is much…
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Blogger arrested for filming council meeting
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Police arrest hobbyists for taking photos of public events they’re now arresting bloggers for filming council meetings. While my request to film council meetings in Lichfield was met with no resistance it seems some councillors seem to be living in an entirely different reality. I’ll be writing…
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Comment on Why Bloggers Shouldn’t Work For Free
I just commented on a blog post by one of The Lichfield Blog’s excellent contributors, Annette Rubery. She talks about the closure of Guardian Local and the attitude of the Guardian towards contributions. I wanted to make sure you, my readers, saw my comment, so here it is; This is something I think about a…
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Response to comments by Paul Court about The Lichfield Blog
In response to Paul Court’s comments about The Lichfield Blog. “Your clunky ad package” Why do you say that? It works nicely for us and none of the many advertisers we’ve had have complained. Far from it in fact. “which seems designed to share information with advertisers you probably don’t want them to know” Such…
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Trinity Mirror Editors Conference – 23/03/2011
Today I spoke to regional editors at Trinity Mirror about how they could work with hyper local sites. You can watch my presentation to them here and you can listen to me take you through it with this AudioBoo: Listen! Below are links to sites, quotes and articles mentioned in the presentation. I hope to…
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6 hyperlocal networks in the UK that are showing the US how it should be done
In a very rare spate of blog posts this week I’ve been talking about hyperlocal networks. Now I want to talk about the UK-based hyperlocal networks that are leading the way. Guardian Local Most of you will probably know about this. Headed by Sarah Hartley, it is the Guardian’s experimental exploration into different forms of…
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A deconstruction of how TBD and Patch do hyperlocal
Yesterday I said that hyperlocals must find the network if they are to be sustainable. Today I want to take you through networks like Patch and TBD.com. TBD Upon visiting TBD.com it’s hard to see how it even is hyperlocal. Under the logo we see the tagline “All over Washington” but its’s hard to see…
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How hyperlocal sustainability is only possible with the network; how we’re doing that in Lichfield and with Journal Local
Networks of niches underpinned by local partnerships are, in my opinion, the way forward. What do I mean by that? A burning issue for any independent hyperlocal at the moment is sustainability including paying costs (hosting, travel, equipment etc), sourcing content, producing content, organising contributors, handling (& learning) technology. There’s a lot to consider. So…