The future of news is local
Jinfo Blog

12th October 2009

By Penny Crossland

Item

LiveWire contributors have been following the battle between print and online news and the debate about whether or how to charge for news for several months now (see the following postings http://www.vivavip.com/go/e24652 ; http://www.vivavip.com/go/e22457 ; http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19910). While the major UK newspaper publishers are struggling to come up with business models that will allow them to survive in the digital age, independent local news bloggers are picking up momentum and forming alliances, making some of the big publishers sit up and take note. Local news and community sites such as Talk About Local (http://talkaboutlocal.org/welcome-2/), My Society (http://www.mysociety.org/) and around 50 other ‘hyperlocal sites’ recently came together at an ‘Unconference’ (http://digbig.com/5bakkj) to discuss the formation of a ‘Hyperlocal Alliance’. Reports from the conference show that community reporting is on the up – fuelled by the closure of regional newspapers and the desire to improve their local communities. While critics argue that local blogging is hardly the equivalent of serious news reporting, proponents of hyperlocal reporting believe that it is part of a social change in how news is provided and an indicator of future news dissemination. Attendees at the conference recognised that the internet has uncovered a need for community reporting and campaigning (http://digbig.com/5bakke), which the traditional press is no longer able to meet. Some of the major newpaper publishers, such as Trinity Mirror ( http://digbig.com/5bakkp) and Daily Mail General Trust ( http://digbig.com/5bakkn ) have embarked upon local digital news projects, which some of the `Unconference‘ organisers hope will lead to collaborative reporting. In the meantime, while it is interesting to observe this shift in news sourcing at a regional level, from an information professional’s point of view, it is clear that searching for that hard-to-find news on people and/or local activities now needs to include local sites.

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