Post by dgriffin on Apr 13, 2009 20:29:34 GMT -5
‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer.
A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists.
The sites, like EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placeblogger and Patch, collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources. They might let a visitor know about an arrest a block away, the sale of a home down the street and reviews of nearby restaurants.
The news business “is in a difficult time period right now, between what was and what will be,” said Gary Kebbel, the journalism program director for the Knight Foundation, which has backed 35 local Web experiments. “Our democracy is based upon geography, and we believe local information is such a core need for our democracy to survive.”
www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/technology/start-ups/13hyperlocal.html?_r=1&em
A modern update to my rubber-type Superior Press neighborhood newspaper when I was in the 5th grade.
