I absolutely have to disagree with Andy Hickley’s argument that hyperlocal journalism wouldn’t be useful because the “big” stories already get covered by the established media.

I particularly take issue with his contention that:

It seems like a lot of hassle for issues that often barely qualify as information.

Who’s making the judgement about what’s important in these communities and what isn’t? Granted, the editor(s) of a hyperlocal site would have to make decisions along those lines, because they’d still have to decide what was worth covering.

But we shouldn’t dismiss the idea of hyperlocal journalism because we think that any big issues that such sites would report on get into the news anyway. (Take a look at the Lincolnshire Echo and then try and justify that line of thought.)

The most important part about this all, that Andy doesn’t even discuss, is that most local people don’t go to these meetings (I suspect this is because they either don’t know about them, or don’t have the time), and therefore don’t know what kind of things they deal with, or what kind of decisions are being made.

This applies both to the local residents associations and the local authorities. As a West End resident, I have absolutely no idea whether the City or County councils have discussed or made decisions about my neighbourhood, or what those decisions were.

I don’t know when the meetings are held, I don’t know who attends, and I don’t know what my local councillors are saying or doing about my local area.

As a journalism student I know where to find this information, details of upcoming and previous meetings, and documents pertaining to the meetings. I seriously doubt that many others in my community do.

And this is the gap that a hyperlocal site could fill.

There is a lot of information about local affairs that isn’t publicised at all, and takes time and effort to get at. By establishing a hyperlocal site you break open this information, and allow easy access to it for locals.

Making it pay

Advertising

Advertising might work. It’s stupid to dismiss it out of hand.

At the “Is global journalism in crisis?” conference at Coventry University on Wednesday, October 28th, Jeff Jarvis said that in CUNY’s experiments with hyperlocal sites they had found a “new population of advertisers”.

He said that these were small businesses on the high street that didn’t advertise in the local paper before, because it was too expensive.

I’m not sure that this would work here. In Lincoln, you may be able to bring in a small amount of advertising, but you would need to clearly undercut the Lincolnshire Echo’s advertising rates, and even then there probably wouldn’t be a huge number of businesses wanting to advertise.

You’d certainly have to venture out of your particular area. A West End hyperlocal site would not bring in enough advertisers to sustain it, largely because it’s almost all residential. You could try and pull in small businesses from the city centre, but I still don’t think you’d be that successful.

Pay walls

Are absolutely contrary to the (my) idea of hyperlocal journalism, that of freeing up and making accessible previously unknown information about the specific local area.

Then what?

Like I mentioned, advertising from small local businesses would bring in a bit of money, but probably not a huge amount.

I think the most realistic way of paying for it would be through community support. For this to be viable it would be necessary to make the community aware of who you are and what you’re doing, and then to prove to them that you’re providing a valuable service.

This would take time, so it’s reasonable to expect that it will be a loss-making enterprise for a long while, and even afterwards the amount of money you would raise (through donations, essentially) may not be enough for a decent full-time salary.

Structure

Because Lincoln is a fairly small town, Daniel Ionescu argues that the city would be best served by a hyperlocal outfit that covers the whole of the city. (None of the big players do that, as they’re all “Lincolnshire”.)

Daniel sees it being comprised of an eight-person team, six beat reporters with an editor and a sub. I’m pessimistic about being able to support so many people.

In my view the best idea would be to split the city up into recognisable areas, the boundaries of which would be best made by local residents themselves, one (or more) of whom would be setting up the site. I would expect that this would lead to fewer than eight people for the whole city.

Also, this increases agility and the ability to combine coverage. Where would the boundaries fall for the city-wide site? If people are only concerned about their own area then they’re free to combine their reporting together in any way they wish, without having to fit into a set structure.

The reporters on these tightly-focused sites would cover everything on their patch. Councils, residents’ associations, police, fire, etc. As they’d be working alone (or in very small groups) this seems like a lot of work.

Collaboration, co-operation, and sharing

With the various council meetings, other city-wide organisations, the police, fire, and ambulance services there is a huge scope for sharing and collaboration between different hyperlocal sites.

For example, a West End blogger might attend a City of Lincoln Council meeting one week and, if it’s relevant, share the information gained with other hyperlocal bloggers.

This would be a way of getting information very efficiently and (ideally) freely. Since the reporters are only particularly concerned with their geographical area there would be essentially no competition between them.

If the council meeting discusses something happening on the South Common, why shouldn’t the West End blogger share it with the South End one?

I see one or perhaps two reporters operating outside the geographical system, covering the city’s two courts, and offering reports to the hyper-local sites for a fee. (Perhaps the sites would group together to pay a subscription for this service.)

Co-operation would vastly increase efficiency, and has no downsides.

Conclusion

I’m perhaps the most optimistic about the possibilities for hyperlocal sites in Lincoln, and I think they could work across the city (and not just in the West End).

Hyperlocal definitely has a place, and I think the journalism produced would be far, far better than that coming from the established media in the area.

But I am also the most pessimistic when it comes to the reporters getting paid for it. The problem with thinking about the financial side of hyperlocal is that there’s no evidence to look at, since it’s a new model that hasn’t been implemented in a comparable situation.