Hyperlocal as part of the national news mix - how might we have a relationship with commercial news companies?

[william perrin]

Most stories start locally - someone somewhere in midfordshire or
grimtown or sleepyville does something or has a problem and the
ripples spread until the big national news organisations pick it up.
Hyperlocal sites are exceptionally well placed to pick this up 0
shoudl we talk about how we work with commercial news orgs?

We hear reports that an increasing number of hyperlocal sites are
monitored by big media. Mike and Tony's marvellous pitsnpots in
Stoke-on-Trent is constantly watched by the news organisations. Simon
and Sally's Ventnorblog was at the heart of reporting the Vesta wind
turbine factory occupation. Bournville village had the best coverage
of the cadbury takeover. I was on the panel selecting new ITV
regional news providers to make sure that the winners understood (or
were prepared to learn) the role of the hyperlocal web in a regional
'news ecology'. Alan Rusbridger set hyperlocal sites as one bookend
in the future of news (Murdoch being the other..)

Overall, this is a hard-won evolution from simple patronisation and
condecension, though there is still some of that about.

Would it be worth having a discussion about what the 'terms of trade'
might to be between hyperlocal sites and trad media organisations?
what would each get from the other in a mutual relationship? does it
involve payment (and all the baggage that goes with that) or is a slap
up lunch every now and then the right relationship? what if a TV news
company made a regular donation to a local civic or children's charity
say? What should a TV company expect from a hyperlocal site. And
vice versa.

We have one or two folk coming along who do work for news gatherers
but also get the local web and don't talk strategy bollox. Worth a
session.

[Chris Condron]

Hello all -

 

I work for one of the newsgathers, the Press Association in fact.

 

I hope I don't talk strategy bollox, though I'll leave that for others to decide. I was heavily involved in the regional news consortia (the 'IFNCs') to which Will refers - I wrote the digital bit for News 3, the winning bid in the North East.

 

As with aforementioned strategy bollox, I'll leave to others to decide whether I 'get local web', but I've been working online since 1997 and only recently swapped making stuff for Powerpoint and jargon. I scribble on beermats. A lot.

 

Love to play a part in a session working through the issues between hyperlocal and traditional media. Happy to tell you what I think...but trad media does a lot of that, so am more interested in talking and working through stuff, and doing plenty listening.

 

Happy to discuss what folk might want to get out of this sort of session, by email or @chriscondron.

 

Look forward to meeting folk,

Chris

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[Mark Walker]

hello all

I'm hoping the Brighton posse will include someone from our local
newspaper [The Argus] who continues to play a key role in enthusing
and supporting the people we're working with as community reporters
[we're allied to TAL but we don't have the same specific focus on
'building hyperlocal websites']

I'm not sure to what extent she is supported by the local editorial or
business people but she is helping to enable closer working across
this local divide.

In terms of the conference I would welcome the chance to look at what
we mean by the current news eco-system, to look at where these links
would ideally be.

Not having a media background I don't understand the various ways that
the trade currently takes place, which makes it much harder to imagine
how the future could look

thanks

Mark

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[RayDuff]

I think that the consequences when relationships fall out means that
we have to make extra special efforts to co-exist with bigger media
operations. In the Hull area the local newspaper (Hull Daily Mail)
with its large staff team and resources perceived a lone local
community publisher (HU17.net) as a threat to its audience base and
business. The newspaper went to extraordinary lengths to 'see-off' the
competition by discrediting the individual publisher. They failed.

It will be difficult to nurture a relationship between the Mail and
hyperlocals in the Hull area because of the bitter-aftertaste of this
particular episode. However, we have to try. I hope that this session
will help and advise hyperlocals on making themselves indispensible in
their local areas - not only to their local communities, but also to
other media organisations.

Much better to co-operate and collaborate than compete?

Rgds
Ray
Hedon Blog

[Philip John]

The other element to this is of course the idea of hyperlocals acting
together, not just talking with each other about what we might be able
to do. (And that takes us back to Will's original idea of some kind of
hyperlocal alliance.)

For traditional media, many hyperlocals will be covering such a small
area that trying to work with them could involve a fair bit of
overhead (this is my assumption, the reality may be different). As an
example, the Birmingham Mail serves quite a large area, including
where I live in Lichfield. This area contains (or potentially
contains) something stupid like 100 hyperlocal sites. So it may be
better if hyperlocals could collaborate with newspapers and the like
as a group, talking through how we can work together that we can all
agree on and work to.

So part of the discussion, I think, is how we can create that network
where we decide, as a group, what we can offer local media and present
a more co-ordinated and coherent voice to present to traditional
media.

Looking forward to talking through this.

On Apr 8, 4:29 pm, william perrin <williamjper...@googlemail.com>
wrote:

[Philip John]

If you'll allow me I'd like to hijack this session :) ... I had an
idea after reading this thread and here's what I'd like to do, if
that's okay?:

I'd like to run the session along with a very pleasant guy I know who
works for that big commercial regional media company, Trinity Mirror.
We'll stand up and talk to each other (hyperlocal to local media co.)
about what we think we can offer each other. Then we'll put it to the
floor to suggest other ideas and ask questions.

Hopefully we can get hold of some flip chart things or just some big
pieces of paper and marker pens we'll write all the suggestions we
have down so that we have a nice record that we can all think and blog
about.

Sound good?

[Ed Walker]

"I'd like to run the session along with a very pleasant guy I know who
works for that big commercial regional media company, Trinity Mirror."

Who is that?

[Chris Condron]

I suspect Philip's talking about David Higgerson...

David and I worked together on the North East IFNC bid, and he is
indeed a very pleasant guy.

Dead smart one too. AND he's giving me a lift on Saturday morning.

Session sounds good. From an IFNC perspective, I'm interested in a
couple of ideas already raised here:

- Working on the assumption that 'big media' and hyperlocal should
work together, how best to set (and review) those terms of engagement?
In a large area (say 'the North East') would it work better for
hyperlocals to work together to form a coherent view of these terms,
or would they prefer to be dealt with individually? Pros and cons
either way, obv...

- What role can big media play to make these relationships work best?
eg venues for meet-ups and unconferences?

- How can the two groups better understand each other's motivations,
and limitations?

- What are the areas for possible collaboration?

Really keen to be part of this session. There's a chap called Nico
coming along too who was part of the UTV bid that one the Wales IFNC.
Am sure he will be active participant.

Massive fan of flipcharts ;-)

Chris

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[RayDuff]

Yes - I like the approach Phil is suggesting although following
introductory remarks might be good to brainstorm as many ideas as
quickly as possible (10 minutes) and post-it note them into 2 columns
'What we think hyperlocal can offer...' 'What we think big media can
offer'. This might generate more raw ideas for the flip-chart debate
and speed things along?

Like most people visiting this Google Group I think that there's so
much to discuss and so little time and far too few sessions to discuss
and action-plan!

Hmm perhaps #TAL11 should be a weekend if we can generate enough
funding for us poor people too attend a full w/e! lol

[Glyn]

Hi all

This sounds like a really interesting discussion and I'd be interested
to take part. I was involved in the Tinopolis IFNC bid in Wales and
I'm now looking to set up some new projects off the back of that...but
the relationship between 'traditional' media and new hyperlocal sites
is something that's been at the forefront of my mind for the past few
months!

Would be good to sit down, meet and chat with you guys.

Look forward to it!

Glyn

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[google.a...@oxburymedia.co.uk]

My view is that Hyper Local news should be part of a news wire like
any other category. I worked for News International for 14 years so I
have some experience of them . More recently these large news
companies are crying out for Hyper Local news. I have met with nearly
10 now to scope out and develop a method for this. But they should
NOT have It for free. I am meeting with the Press Association next
week to see if there is a possibilty to include a 'Hyper Local Feed'
into them which can be syndicated in the existing way. This way Hyper
Local sites will be rewarded for thier content either by Traffic or
hard cash . I will keep you all posted on developments .

Jason - jason@oxburymedia , www.oxburymedia.co.uk

[Nico Fell]

As Chris mentioned, I will be there on Saturday (Ash Cloud
permitting). I was heavily involved in UTV's successful IFNC bid for
Wales Live. Having had a chat with Chris on this already, I would be
more than happy to get involved. As long as my flight isn't delayed, I
should be with you just after 10am.

Look forward to hearing everyones input. See you then.

On Apr 14, 10:40 am, Chris Condron <chriscond...@gmail.com> wrote: