Hyperlocal Newspaper Sites Can Work

The desire to cover local communities is nothing new to newspapers.  However, it is hard for a paper that covers a large area to focus on events that are happening in all neighborhoods in the circulation area.  Time, page space, and budgets all constrain such coverage, but some papers are finding ways to cover hyperlocal news.

In the cover story of the Newspaper Association of America's January 8 issue of Presstime, "Cover Story: 8 Trends to Track in ’08," we can learn about newspapers that are succeeding in covering communities.  See the eighth trend.

The article spotlights how The Dallas Morning News works with community members to publish information on its neighborsgo sites.  People submit content through this site, and some of it makes into print and on the newspaper's homepage. 

Oscar Martinez, managing editor of neighborsgo, told Presstime that these hyperlocal sections act as "17 small-town papers."  Further, when mentioning the role of the public, he also said, "We're saying, 'This is your turn to speak up first, and we'll take it from there…' We're not creating a need to share information. We're providing tools to be able to do so."

That's the great thing about the Internet. It facilitates connections between people and those with their sources of news.  That's one of many ways that the Internet can help newspapers.