Sustaining Hyperlocal Media

Discourses of Enterprise in Hyperlocal Community News in the UK

“…Yet, in line with findings by Kurpius, Metzgar, and Rowley (2010) and van Kerkhoven and Bakker (2014), there is a sense of precariousness over hyperlocal's viability as either an alternative media scene or in simply "filling the gap" over the long term. For those looking to invest funding or to bring the practice to the attention of policy-makers, they can take comfort that the sector is home to some small business entrepreneurs seeking to grow media businesses that address concerns over media plurality.…”

“…Jones and Salter (2012, 103-107) also note the tensions between the need for hyperlocal sites to have an emphasis on community engagement whilst ensuring they attract advertisers that may well compromise that position. The problem of the sustainability of emergent hyperlocal media organisations is the focus of research by Kurpius, Metzgar, and Rowley (2010), who interviewed proprietors of a range of hyperlocals in the United States. They noted that whilst the form had a better chance for survival than previous experiments in civically orientated, participatory journalism, it found itself lacking a single recipe for financial success.…”

Locative News

“…Hyperlocal media focus on a narrow geographical area or set of topics seeking to find a niche, often participatory, among the service gaps left by other available media (Kurplus, Metzgar, and Rowley 2010). This includes not only traditional mainstream news but also the international technology-company providers such as Google or Yahoo, whose interest is in personalisation rather than localism.…”

Journalism as usual: The use of social media as a newsgathering tool in the coverage of the Iranian elections in 2009

“…First posited (albeit indirectly, since he does not use the term) by John Pavlik in Journalism and New Media (Pavlik, 2001), hyperlocal sites are constructed as an alternative to the increasing corporatisation of news outlets within the western world, and the ensuing lack of news available for citizens of smaller communities and towns. Thanks to the increasing financial pressure on news organisations in the twenty-first century, more and more towns and cities in the developed world have no local news outlet, it having been closed or merged with a larger news outlet; hyperlocal sites are arising to fill this gap (Kurpius et al, 2010).…”