Master the obvious, as Curley says, is step one in a successful HL website. Yes, but also, do it 100%. I think what we learned from the failure or non-success of LoudonExtra was the fact that the community was bigger than the journalism performed. Since the area (comprising many nearby cities) was so much larger than the Kansas town where Curley started, it took way more effort, and they weren’t giving it.

Also, the content must be extremely well reported, immediate, and multimedia oriented. I loved that Crowley had a feature of covering KU basketball that involved a video game with commentary–unique AND interesting. Being innovative and energetic is a must…and fearless when it comes to trying new tech concepts. In the world of the internet, try and fail is better than wait and see.

I also noticed Curley’s intent on depth. Locality is only as good as it is descriptive. Gone are the days of measuring stories in inches. Say it well, but say it all…if it’s important.

I think we’ve already talked about it, but I really think that Bluffton Today is a great example of hyperlocal journalism – I LOVE that they take the internet user generated content and make a print version available to less computer-savvy people.

I thought that the work of Rob Curley was a great example of this too. His little league digital baseball cards, the data-base of high school sports statistics, the local forecasts that look local, etc., are all great examples of covering what is most important to a community. Providing such unique products as these helps to give the community a voice and allows its members to engage in an ongoing dialogue, which certainly seems like something we need more of these days.

A quote from the “Local Voices”: “To be a Community Voice, a volunteer columnist for The Dallas Morning News’s editorial page, the person needs to think locally, write well, tell us something we don’t know, and be persuasive.”

Rob Curley : “I want a site to be so cool and important to people that they talk about it the way you talk about having a great park where you live. It’s a local amenity.”

I think the reason why hyperlocal journalism works is because it’s like friends hanging out and talking about what’s been happening around their town. It is definitely more persuasive because if a journalist in Washington talks about the problems in Austin, people won’t believe him. What does a journalist in Washington know about Austin and would he even care, really? But when a local person writes about his/her views about the community, people can relate to the story.

And people are vast seas of information that journalists need to tap into. Before, it used to be so hard to find a person that knew the historical background and interesting tidbits about a local site. Journalists had to go door to door and dig out information. But now we can make the people come to us, and voluntarily give their information. And the best way to do that is to be like Rob Curley and the Dallas Morning News – make the process so enjoyable that the citizens want to be a part of it.

Journalists seem to worry that news is becoming just another entertainment channel, but I disagree. I think that making news sites enjoyable is not just to entertain the readers, but it’s for making the news even better by inviting more participation. Thus, I think the newsrooms should not be thinking, “how can I entertain my audience?” but “how can I reach out to people, so that they will help me make the news better?”

It is an interesting sign of success that in a town of 82,000 residents, the average visitors to the University of Kansas Jayhawks team ranged from 500,000 to 13 million. And on another note, perhaps having the possibility to engage with a reporter is not something new to me, but the possibility of talking to victims? To those affected in news stories? That’s really going online.

From the Nieman reports I read a story about the decline of newspapers, that discusses how teachers no longer use print editions of news, that people tend to go for brand-name newspapers like the Times and Washingtonpost, foregoing their local news for broader mainstream news. Local papers are also struggling against local broadcasters that are finding outlets online, facing increasing competition. I also read a story called What readers mean when they say they want local news. Mary Nesbitt’s calls local news micro-news, news that’s fit for the consumer in two ways: in topics that interests the local consumer, and presented in ways that engages him/her. But she doesn’t discuss how journalists can positions themselves online and make a business out of it.

I think that as long as the news outlet positions itself where the user is, whether it’s in front of the TV, on their mobile, on their social networks, if it uses the tools the user uses daily to connect with other people then it should be able to connect with the user too. The Loudoun.com site put out by WashingtonPost was unsuccessful in part because Curley and his team failed to immerse in the community and absorb all its ins and outs, as he himself said. But I also think it might have failed because it’s too broad. I mean yes, it’s local, but it’s not like the Jayhawks site that launched him into fame that has a very specific niche. Or the successful Vegas site he’s building, that also has a specific niche and an amount of people interested in Vegas (from residents to travelers) that’s always there. The thing also with the Loudoun is that it tried to encompass a very different population, with a lot of diversity, whereas Vegas or Jayhawks have many things in common.

The business is in the linking, of people, of news, of sites, of businesses. I think that mastering the features of vertical in-depth detailed coverage with ALL SORTS OF VERY VARIED AND DIFFERENT TOOLS that can appeal to a massive audience, as well as niche-oriented models are ways to reach success in the online sphere.

First of all, I have stated before, but I think hyperlocal journalism is where the future stands. I think it is very important to gain readers’ attention, but I think it is even more important to allothe readers to become engaged in the story and voice their opinion.

I thought it was interesting how the article discussed avoided bipartisanship. It is almost inevitable that someone is going to voice their opinion, especially in this city. It gives readers a more personal feel with the writers.

I thought the writer did well choosing this quote.

“These columnists provide that in a way the typical journalist cannot. They see their world differently, and they write because they have something to say. Perhaps that is why readers don’t accuse them of writing just to sell newspaper.”

There are also incentives for contributing writers.

I think having community journalists at an editorial meeting is a good idea because it helps show them what they are able to do for the magazine and to voice their opinions. The journalists on the “outside” are more likely able to seek out stories and to give the station feedback about how people respond to their articles.

I think focusing locally is where the audience is, because your audience is interested in what directly affects them. If you want to expend your audience (which I’m pretty sure most newsrooms do,) then I think to some extent, you have to feed people news they care about. And, let’s face it: The exposed truth about your child’s principal is far more interesting to most viewers/readers, than a remote national story that most people won’t remember.

The reporter I heard this weekend talked about an investigative story he did about gas pumps cheating consumers. Now, you may have heard this story (or some variation of it,) but you probably didn’t know that there is a website where you can type in your zip code and find pumps in your area that have been fined for cheating consumers. My point is: this reporter says he didn’t know how to get this information on the Internet, but he knew the audience would want the information. So, he asked the web people in his newsroom to put it online. He realizes what the audience wants. Minutes after telling viewers the website, before the newscast was over, he said the server crashed because so many people were typing in their zip codes. This proves that hyperlocal reporting DOES matter a lot, and in the future we, as journalists, MUST figure out away to catch the audiences attention… to engage the audience, otherwise, we won’t survive.

Yes, it may sound selfish, but when you really think about it, regardless of your audience, we all care about what is happening to us and those closest to us first…and we usually want to talk about it. As far as the future is concerned, newsrooms should constantly be thinking—what tools could I use to make this easier, and more interactive for the audience?

Steering this a little toward the site that I’m analyzing, it becomes clear pretty quickly which topics resonate with readers and which are overlooked by them. In my site’s case, issues of safety and “neighborhood watch” are much more actively discussed than others. The “know your audience” tenet of journalism does not change–it actually becomes much more important.

I suppose if I had to boil down what I took from this is that it’s not any different than regular journalism, but it needs to be viewed as just another branch of a much larger animal. In doing so, we can stop asking questions about what it is and how it works, and start covering local issues that matter.

At the heart of all of the readings, the basic principles for web 2.0 were enforced. A successful web venture must be conversational in tone, interactive, community and connectivity enhancing, immediate, and easy to navigate and understand. Something that wasn’t often mentioned, though, was the necessity for good writers. We understand the necessity for geeky, technological saavy types to wquip the site with web 2.0 features, but as far as the journalistic aspect of it goes, i think a site void of good writing will die just like a site that doesnt promote community. It also gives the reader a place to have their voice heard. a quote that struck me was, “By recognizing and validating the reader’s role in breaking news, we create a loyal and active readership, which over time does more of the reporting work that likely began with those who conceived the site.” This toots the horn for citizen journalism.

While this idea of hyperlocal journalism has taken over internet news sites, i fear that it will become peoples one stop news shop. In a perfect world, i would like to see hyperlocal sites used as a supplement for mainstream news instead of a replacement. The US media has been criticized for its lack of international coverage… the average american has no idea what’s going on in the world beyond their backdoor. With this new trend, journalists now need to figure out how to make international news just as interesting.