What type of local news site are you?

The debate rages on. People are cooling from the word “hyperlocal”, keen to replace it with something else. But what?

What flavour is your journalism? (If you even call it journalism.)

Two studies point toward a typology, or taxonomy, of local news and information sites. One comes from the USA: Michele McLellan and her list of seven types of local news sites. The other comes from the UK: Neighbourhood Networks and its list of eight types of “citizen-led local internet spaces”. The two are looking at slightly different areas online. There is, however, noticeable overlap.

Michele’s List uses a criteria that tastes more like journalism. (That seems expected seeing as she developed it whilst a fellow at the University of Missouri’s Reynold’s Journalism Institute in 2009-10.) The seven types of sites she identifies do, too:

1. New traditionals Sites that have “original content produced by professional journalists”. They have smaller staffs than the traditional newsrooms, and embrace “digital connectivity” with their users. Most are grant funded, looking for a business model with diverse revenue streams. They tend to cover metropolitan and statewide areas. Examples: MinnPost, St. Louis Beacon, Texas Tribune, Voice of San Diego, and lots of others.
2. Community Sites driven by boot-strap entrepreneurial professional journalists focused on community building. Community in the broader sense; not just geographic. Civic engagement and partnerships with local groups and activists is common. Examples: Alamo City Times, The Hill is Home, Spot.us, NEast Philly, and lots of others.
3. Micro local Sites that are defined by their coverage of a specific town or neighbourhood, and “sometimes called ‘hyper local’”. They may be driven by one person, or have a small staff made up of a few people, interns or “citizen contributors”. Possibly supported by “highly local advertising”. Examples: DavidsonNews.net, Lakeland Local, My Green Lake, Berkeleyside, and lots of others.
4. Niche Sites that focus on specific content based on topics, such as education, sports, health, restaurants, etc. They use a range of revenue streams, such as advertising, syndication and subscriptions. Examples: BikePortland.org, EdNewsColorado, Irishcentral, Science in the Triangle, and lots of others.
5. Mini sites Sites run by individuals or a few people. “They tend to be idiosyncratic in the selection of stories they cover and not highly aggressive in finding revenue.” Examples: The Cambridge Civic Journal, McHenry County Blog, The Restonian, and some others.
6. Local news systems Sites that are “highly local, low cost sites created with a regional or national template, often by a corporation”. Examples: Patch, Community Impact, and a few others.
7. Aggregators Sites that pull together links from other other places. Examples: Outside.in and Windy Citizen.

The Online Neighbourhood Networks Study focuses less on the journalism and more on citizen’s civic engagement online. (That, too, seems expected with Neighbourhood Networks being a consultancy of social media, communications and community development specialists.) This comes through in the first six of the eight types of spaces, noticeably absent of commercial aims:

1. Civil social networks Sites “designed to encourage discussion and interaction between local people.” Some are based on forum software, while others are built on newer platforms that enable content such as events listings, photos, videos and static pages for information. The forum is the highest profile area of the site, and the sites often emerge from specific local issues. Example: Harringay Online.
2. Local discussion sites Sites that are very similar to civil social networks, except much more focused on the social side of discussion. People share information about the place, but the focus isn’t on changing it. Example: Stroud Green.
3. Placeblogs Sites that are set by an individual or small group to report on very local issues. “There is often a strong purpose of driving local change through shining the light on issues of local concern.” The focus is more on “citizen journalism” than interaction. Comments are the only form of public interaction on the blogs. Example: King’s Cross Environment.
4. Local blogazines Sites similar to placeblogs, but with lighter content focused on a human interest angle. They “use stories to improve perceptions of an area”. Example: Transpontine.
5. Public social spaces Instead of dedicated sites, these are profiles set up on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter used for sharing information about an area. Example: @Crouch_End.
6. Local action groups online Sites that tend to replace newsletters from groups such as friends of parks and buildings, residents associations, tenants groups and environmental groups. Many are set as a static noticeboard or Yahoo group, though some use blogs. Example: Danescourt Community Association.
7. Local digital news Sites are “hyperlocal news sites” created to report on local issues. They are different from the sites led by “citizen journalists” because they are created for a commercial purpose. Examples: Northcliffe Media’s Local People, Se1, and Neighbournet’s sites, like Chiswickw4.
8. Multiples and listings Sites that exist primarily to generate revenue through listings. Sometimes they combine content, such as reviews. Examples: Dulwich.co.uk and Qype.

These types seem more the products of citizens than journalists. Yet within the appendix that details the kind of content in each type, “news” is present in every single one. Some of the Networked Neighbourhood types feel like they almost could fit inside some of Michele’s types: micro local, niche, mini sites, and local news systems.

So, what does a comparison show?

• Both studies discuss types of sites that are present in the US and UK.
• The US study is focused on sustaining journalism, whereas the UK study is focused on empowering citizens in a participatory democracy.
• The US types of sites are significantly more focused on sustaining themselves through business, whereas the UK types of sites are more focused on sustaining themselves through voluntary service.

Perhaps it indicates some differences between the US and UK new media local/hyperlocal movements. Is the US movement more concerned with making journalism pay? Is the UK movement more fussed with creating a “big society”? Or, perhaps, is this only a matter of who carried out the research?

What do you think?

Tagged as: civic engagement, community, hyperlocal, journalism, local, media, neighbourhood, news, online, taxonomy, typology