Ask a dozen journalists for a working definition of hyperlocal and you might get nine different responses. For some, hyperlocal journalism has been around for years. It’s nothing more than making sure that journalism is local and concentrates on the news surrounding a particular community. For some, hyperlocal means more than just covering the local news. Hyperlocal journalism is about digging in and finding out what is most important to the community the journalist serves.
A new site, www.tbd.com, is up and running and media is paying attention, especially other hyperlocal sites. It’s not just the hyperlocals that are following tbd.com. Established online media sites have been following it also.
It’s not just the fact that it’s new and in Washington D.C. that makes this an important and interesting story. The story is interesting because it presents another way for old media journalists to work with new journalists in hopes that the overall media message will improve. Review The site is www.tbd.com. Take a look, think about it for a while. Is this a new approach?
More hyperlocal
Another way of looking at hyperlocal media is media that fills a niche need in an over-saturated media market. An example of this can be found in sports news with this site.
For those of you who have spent the summer at a newspaper in a small to mid-sized town, you have surely come across this problem. How do small town and mid-sized town newspapers cover youth sports? Sports editors at these publications will receive more angry phone calls about this during the course of the summer as they will receive over any other normal sports subject during the course of a year. This idea of hyperlocal as a sports aggregator for youth sports is something that could work. At the very least, it’s something to follow to see how journalism shapes up in the future.
