I’m fascinated with Seattle’s hyperlocal media. (Judging by the American report on the State of the Media 2011, I’m not alone. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism just released a special report on Seattle as a case study for new media.) And to answer the question in the headline, I don’t really know who the people are behind this burgeoning scene that “epitomizes the promise, and challenges” facing journalism.
I know some of Seattle’s hyperlocalists: Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog, the self-dubbed “Geeky Swedes” (Cory and Kate Bergman) of the Next Door Media network, and Justin Carder of Capitol Hill Seattle blog and Neighborlogs network. These are the people who have been at the forefront of the hyperlocal movement in their city, which means the media, and Google search, rank them high. Probably rightfully so judging by stories like this one written a year ago.
But the Seattle area has more than 70 hyperlocal sites. I know because I spent my Saturday morning making a spreadsheet of them with a lot of help from the Washington News Council’s exhaustive maps. (Not all of these are bootstrap start ups. Enter local TV station KOMO and Patch.com in the ‘burbs.) There are many more people in this city making hyperlocal happen. Yet, no one hears much about them.
Why do I care so much about Seattle? Here are a few reasons:
- I’m American, and before I moved to the UK in 2007, I worked as a journalist in the states for five years.
- Lucky for me, my brother now lives in Seattle. (That means a free place to sleep in Queen Anne.)
- I’ve never visited the Pacific Northwest. And I really want to.
- I now live in Wales, an area of the UK where hyperlocal media has lagged. (Check out the big empty space on Openly Local’s directory map.) I think Wales, and Britain as a whole, can learn a few lessons from Seattle’s hyperlocalists.
- I run a hyperlocal site, Llandaff News. So I want to learn a lot.
- Who are the people behind hyperlocal? That is the crux of the question for my PhD research, which is why I care so much. Seattle is a starting point for me.
Between 27 April and 7 May, I’ll be in Seattle sniffing around the hyperlocal scene. So, if you are involved with online community news in any way, I am super keen to grab a smidge of time with you. Get in touch with me on Twitter @joniayn, on email at joni@joniayn.com or Skype at joniayn.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Joni,
As the guy who exhaustively made those maps, I’m glad to see them getting noticed!
Thanks for the writeup, and look forward to your visit. In the meantime, there’s more good stuff coming down the pike, such as Seattle’s Journalism Commons and further developments with the OMG – Online Media Guide project.
http://journalismthatmatters.org/sessions/journalism-commons-pnw/
~Jacob
Hi Jacob, The maps are fantastic! I wish every state had a council creating this sort of database. And hat’s off to all the other initiatives y’all are involved in. I can’t wait to visit and hear more. -Joni
Joni –
Yes, thanks for posting this. Jacob is definitely the guy who did all the great work on the maps and the OMG. It’s a project of the WNC that spun out of JTM. When you come visit Seattle, we’ll definitely get together and maybe invite some of the folks you mention. We know most of them, including Mike Fancher, who wrote the Seattle case study report. I was in England last may for the ONO conference at Oxford, and also met with Martin Moore at Media Standards Trust in London. Also, my wife is from Oklahoma (she went to OSU). Small world!
– John Hamer, President and Executive Director, Washington News Council