I’ve moved this feature to the start of the (UK) week. Each post will round up some key stories, features and news items related to hyperlocal media, creative citizenship, local journalism and local news. If you’ve suggestions for this round up please feel free to tweet me () or add them to the comments below. We hope you find this list useful.
UK Stories
1.
As by the Newspaper Society:
“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced a series of measures this week aimed at excluding what it calls “‘micro-business’ blogs” from being classed as “relevant publishers” and falling under the Crime and Courts Bill’s statutory ‘incentives’ and sanctions for the Government’s Royal Charter press regulation scheme.
However, micro businesses could still opt to join an approved regulator. The DCMS has also published guides on the application of the proposed system and which publishers it wanted to regulate or exempt.”
2.
This 16-page report, by , explores how Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror have responded at industry-wide, organizational and operational levels to the challenges of the digital age.
“This much is clear: Local newspaper publishers have been busy. But, through whichever lens one chooses to look, the results have been uneven. And formidable challenges remain - particularly as audiences shift their access to digital media from PCs to mobiles…”
‘Pressed to Change: Business model innovation and integration in the British local newspaper industry‘ can be downloaded and there’s a of the report on Francois’ blog.
3. Introduction to the UK hyperlocal scene
Our very own Street Fight, the US hyperlocal based website, about recent developments in UK hyperlocal media.
“I think there’s an uncounted economic potential that comes from hyperlocal that comes from this naïve group of hobbyists of which there seem to be a lot in the U.K. The local paper in Birmingham has very few journalists on the ground, but what it does have is 20-something hyperlocal operations from which it can pick up news on an RSS feed or a Twitter feed.”
4. as is the
Another couple of successful online publications go back to black (and white, and may be with a bit of colour).
5.
A 16 minute video, , was made for the URTV’s network show Your Health Matters. It won top prize in the Epilepsy Scotland media awards for the best online/broadcasting category after beating entries from BBC Scotland, BBC Belfast and STV. []
US Stories
6.
Street Fight co-founder Laura Rich to , at Upstart Business Journal about how they hit profitability and the impact of Groupon’s decline. , , , and others are cited as doing interesting tings in the US space. There’s also a great (US focused) showing key changes in the development of hyperlocal since 2011.
7. 7 Mapping Tools for Hyperlocal Publishers
Does what it says on the tin. By Stephanie Miles for Street Fight.
8. How Joey Coleman crowdfunded his work as a hyper-local reporter (Podcast)
Joey Coleman how he decided to do some crowdfunding to raise money to cover his home town of Hamilton in Canada. .
Forbes’ briefly comments on this social network in this . For him a key reason behind it’s success is: “Nextdoor ensures what I’ll call “guaranteed locality”; you can’t join a neighborhood if you aren’t a real resident. Nextdoor’s concept of focus and enforcing a meaningful geographic context for user interaction is crucial because if people who aren’t actually neighbors can join a neighborhood network then local relevance is easily lost.”
10. US newspaper readers are engaged, but local papers need to do more on mobile
Short summary and useful charts paidContent on the results of a new survey by the Newspaper Association of America and Nielsen.