If I had days-of-the-week knickers, Monday would have yourCardiff emblazoned on the bum. Tuesday would sport CaptureCardiff. Wednesday would go to ClickonWales. Thursday? Friday? Saturday? I’m waiting to find out who else will launch a news site this week. Everyone wants a bit of action.
If the capital of Wales was ever in need of more news, that void is being filled in a fury of excitement. People — myself included — are clamouring to join the trendy cult of “hyperlocal”. Since the Guardian advertised for a beatblogger last October, the plot has thickened. Media Wales responded with a new role for an online communities editor. Somewhere inbetween I quietly started Llandaff News, and RoathCardiff emerged on Twitter. Ed Walker moved to town for Media Wales. Hannah Waldram tiptoed around Chapter until last week when she had a coming out in The Guardian. And on 1 Feb, it all began to climb towards the climax.
Three new websites determined to become choc a bloc with Cardiff news have emerged in the past three days. On Monday, yourCardiff, a new subsite of WalesOnline, debuted. The site was built in three weeks by Media Wales developer Andrew Wilcox and concieved by Walker, a hyperlocal blogger from Preston whose hobby turned into a paid job as Media Wales new online community editor. (I’ll join them both in a few weeks time.)
Capture Cardiff — “a new local news site for Cardiff, run by freelance reporters”, as it says on its Twitter account – emerged in a slight shroud of mystery on Tuesday night. But many of the freelance reporters published on the site are students on Cardiff University’s postgraduate diploma course for journalism. In years past, Capture Cardiff has been the name of a features project within the course’s practical online journalism module. ”Hyperlocal” and “entrepreneurial journalism” are two of the media words of 2010, so the students seem to be making their own “teaching hospital”.
ClickonWales isn’t quite Cardiff, as the name suggests, and it hasn’t officially made it to the world wide web. Last night, the group behind the site, the Institute for Welsh Affairs, gave people a sneak peek in exchange for a tenner. (We also got a bit of wine, some posh snacks and a panel discussion about the intersection of blogging and journalism.) The new website looks like it wants to emulate WalesHome but in institutional form. Parts of the site will cost money. Though access won’t be a paywall as much as a membership drive for the IWA.
So who’s next? Guardian Cardiff launched on Twitter, maintained by Waldram, a graduate of Cardiff’s journalism diploma course. Like Walker, her hobby — Bournville Village — became a paying job as the city’s new beatblogger. Is The Guardian the next to start a news site? Or should we bank on one of the new Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) bidders to jump into the mix? Could WalesLive be rushed into doing more than promoting itself and actually reporting? No one wants to show all their cards. The game is on.
The wannabe journalists, working journalists and out-of-work journalists are all itching to cash in on hyperlocal — or anything close to it. Whether that cash equals a corporate bottom line, a grant from the government, more members in a club, or just a paying job, the promise of pounds has lured people to hushedly meet for coffees and quietly collaborate. This week, some of these characters have laid a few cards on the table. So who’s going to launch a new site today? Or Friday? Or Saturday? I dunno. But I’m betting I won’t need any new day-of-the-week knickers for Sunday. Everyone knows they don’t make them for Sunday — because of God. Maybe Monday we’ll reach the climax.
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Joni, slight correction to what you’ve got up there. Capture Cardiff is the name of a features project in the Cardiff University Diploma online journalism module – and never has been a limited quiet print run (you are thinking of the print newspaper), rather it is hosted on each of the students’ own blogs/personal sites encouraging them to get to grips with multimedia alongside their online writing.
Besides, there are in public websites such as alt.cardiff and the magazine production exercises.
Ah… thanks, Glyn. Apologies for the mistake. I stand corrected.
No worries, like you I’m very excited by how Cardiff and the hyperlocal work of people like yourself, Hannah, Ed and the Capture Cardiff massif are being brought into the the spotlight.
It is indeed a very exciting time for Cardiff. Here’s another one to add to your growing knicker collection Joni – new hyperlocal site @CityCCardiff launched on Friday… so we nearly had a complete week of new online journalism ventures launching for the city.
In your last paragraph, you hint that the incentive for starting such new projects is financial – I’m not so sure. I started Bournville Village for a number of reasons – and none of them involved making any money. It’s difficult to pin down the motivations for starting a hyperlocal or local community website and not all come from budding or ex-journalists – many are active citizens hoping to make a difference in their area or among a group of people with a common interest. It just so happens that the idea of starting a hyperlocal website also appeals to journalists who already have an invested interest in stimulating democratic engagement.
Whatever the incentive, however, the prospect of many people “quietly collaborating” across the city is something to be celebrated, and what with more sites to be unveiled, the future for Cardiff gets ever brighter.