Something I've picked up a few weeks late is this piece in the Economist using Bedworth in the Midlands (UK) as a case study of a town with no (traditional) local media following the closure of its weekly newspaper.
What's interesting about the piece is how both high and low tech solutions are filling the gaps.
The high tech solution is obviously local blogs, run by enthusiasts. A project here in the UK that's just got off the ground is nutshell, a directory of community and neighbourhood sites.
It's a bit thin on the ground at the moment but it will hopefully become more comprehensive as people submit their own local blogs - as so many other projects, it relies on the Web public to fill in the gaps.
Local blogs are fine for me. My one, The Greenwich Phantom, is I think a better read than the free magazines and newspapers that land through my letterbox.
But I'm not in the typical demographic for a local weekly newspaper reader, so I'm unlikely to notice a difference if they vanish. Greenwich in South London is also the sort of place where people are likely to be online and using social media.
And that's the point of the Economist piece. The Bedworth Echo reached only 15% of the town's 15-24 year olds, who according to the recent Ofcom Communications Market Report are unlikely to miss any kind of print media.
But when it came to 45-54 year olds it was read by 31%. Also the people most reliant on local news are, according to Claire Enders of Enders Analysis, "the people least likely to have access to broadband." I may not care if my local newspaper closes, but plenty of other people will.
That's why the low tech, non online news solutions are interesting. In Bedworth an information network has been set up using local residents groups.
And related to that, there is the existence of neighbourhood and parish newsletters, which still have a captive audience.
When we handled the account for the semi-official reputable tradespersons' scheme TrustMark, one of the things we looked into is something few communications professionals ever really get involved with, the thousands and thousands of parish newsletters up and down the country (what a lot of people don't realise is that there are a few central gatekeepers that supply them with content to supplement local news, much like news agencies on a bigger scale).
Our rationale was that advice on finding a local plumber or electrician is something that happens at neighbourhood, street and garden fence level - something we had confirmed by research we undertook showing that 'where do I find a good tradesperson' is the number two topic of conversation between neighbours after the weather (that could well be a British thing!)
What connects neighbourhood newsletters and hyperlocal blogs is that they are (by and large) not run for profit, but they still have a vital role in disseminating information. Perhaps the conclusion is, local news is alive and well. Just don't expect to make a lot of money from it.
- Online Journalism Blog: Help map local blogs in the UK (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
- Are hyperlocal sites the next new big (little) thing? (mediabullseye.com)
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