Get Hyped for Hyperlocal
Friday, May 1, 2009 at 02:48PM 
What is Hyperlocal News?
The term hyperlocal is often used to refer to news coverage of community-level events. Barack Obama’s Earth Day speech is national news, a story about downed power lines on the street I live on is hyperlocal news. Hyperlocal news is a valuable asset to a struggling newspaper industry. Today, to reduce costs and maintain readership, many newspapers are decreasing their international and national news stories and beefing up on their hyperlocal news stories.
If you wanted to know more about the Swine Flu, you would want to read a national report to get detailed information. However, if you wanted to know about Swine Flu outbreaks in your area you would turn to your local weekly or daily newspaper. Smaller news outlets know this is the case and are now turning to hyperlocal content, and hometown news to stay in the game.
Despite the struggle for survival in the newspaper industry, small newspapers are able to corner a niche market for their communities. People will always be interested in what goes on in their "backyard." Bake sales, yard sales, local sports scores, and school and parish events, etc. I find this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal post sums up the hyperlocal news niche well:
The formula for running a small-town newspaper
would be familiar to any mom-and-pop business:
No detail is too small and all business is personal.
“It’s not a Wall Street model, it’s a hometown model,”
says George Sample, known as “Scoop,” chief executive
of Sample News Group, which owns 10 papers in
Pennsylvania and New York…
The use of social media services is further pushing a hyperlocal mindset. People and businesses are finding each other via proximity searches on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, meetup, and Twitter. In addition, local blogs are springing up to connect readers on a social level as well as on a informative/news-like level. Here in Albany, to find out about local businesses, good places to eat, entertain your children, or see a live show you would consult www.alloveralbany.com.
So what can you do to go hyperlocal with your news?
1. Determine your target audience
What type of news are you putting out? Is it a sports piece? Feature story? Does it relate to education? Once you can classify your news you have a better idea of who you should distribute it to. Also, make sure the media you target is geographically specific to the news you are covering.
2. Get Familiar
Investigate your town/city’s weekly papers, shoppers, community newsletters, and local blogs. Find out what kind of news they are interested in. Also find out what towns or communities they cover.
3. Get Friendly
Communicate with your local editors, reporters, and bloggers. The better rapport you have with your local media on a personal level, the more likely your news will be carried in their publications. You will also be kept up to date on staffing/contact information changes. Try to find them on facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, etc. to build a more social relationship.
4. Include Multimedia
I find hyperlocal news to be very family-oriented. Parents and relatives love to see their kids in the media. If you have photos from a soccer game, BBQ fundraiser, art show, etc., include a very specific caption with each child’s name listed. Community newspapers can’t get enough of this type of news, and parents demand it.
