POLIS Hyperlocal News: After the Hype A Polis Report By Carina Tenor Contents Introduction Introduction 1 This paper sets out some of the In the Nordic countries, where Community News Network (ICNN), characteristics of hyperlocal with legacy media still has a strong, the early network Talk About Local, Executive Summary 2 some international comparisons. though declining, local presence, and the media regulator IMPRESS. It shows the limits of the sector the phenomena has also been The innovation foundation NESTA is A Sector of Diversity 3 but also its surprising vitality. noted, both as entrepreneurial local also one of the organisations that has The Cardiff Hub 6 journalism and more as “in-between been taking a strong interest in the Drawing on previous research, it poses media” – a semi-professional layer hyperlocal sector. So what can we learn Centres in the Nordic countries 8 questions about possible directions between personal blogging and from the experiences and development of travel to key people with insight legacy media (Hujanen, 2017). of the hyperlocal news sector in the The hype and the reality 8 into the UK’s hyperlocal news sector. UK? We will look at expectations and Internet economy 9 In this report we will take a closer challenges both in the past and for the It does not claim to be a look at some of the actors in the future, and also discuss some views Local journalism and filling the news gap 9 comprehensive survey, more an UK like the Centre for Community on how to best support the sector. attempt to identify trends and to Journalism (C4CJ), the Independent Community cohesion 9 stimulate innovation and debate. Challenges 10 What strikes me looking at the UK from Expectations for the future 11 a Swedish perspective, is the sense that media industry commentators Life after the hype 12 are surprised at the innovation and resilience in the sector. Small, The future 12 community-orientated websites that Conclusions 12 popped up 5–10 years ago, seemingly out of nowhere, provided a counter- example to the doom and gloom surrounding the local newspaper industry with its cutbacks, increasing owner concentration, and highly commercial approaches. Some go so far as to describe hyperlocals as an opposing trend to a British tradition of top-down media. Now people were taking matters in their own hands, using their creativity and feeling for their local community to share views and information. Hyperlocals are of course an international phenomenon. In America, independent online news sites have a longer tradition. As city and local papers closed it was seen as a possible future business model for local news. This may have been overly optimistic, but now we see some impressive initiatives targeting funding, such as News Revenue Hub in San Diego and democracy projects, like Local News Labs in New Jersey. 1 Executive Summary A Sector of Diversity As commercial mainstream local news faced increasing financial pressures over the last decade, some people hoped that The label hyperlocal is put on a broad Emma Meese, C4CJ new digital technologies would facilitate the growth of independent ‘hyperlocal’ online news to fill the gaps. This sector range of different motivations, skills, of small community news providers uses digital tools and platforms to report from places and in forms that commercial business models, and geographical settings – even platforms. Some media outlets do not. After a first phase of enthusiasm they struggled to spread widely but now there are signs that hyperlocal publishers are journalists, they have become part of an emerging local media system that cannot be ignored. Increased collaboration; starting a some are local citizens wanting to representative body; lobbying for shares of statutory notices; partnerships with the BBC; a lot has happened in recent years celebrate their community, and others in UK hyperlocal. start from campaigning against the local council and then broaden their coverage. “Each one is different, each one is a very locally tailored product, as it should be” says journalist and could understand what was going researcher Rachel Howells. She started on”, he says. Perrin experimented Port Talbot Magnet with journalist with what was then a quite new Accountable journalism: colleagues in 2009 in a Welsh town technology and set up a blog: There are examples of hyperlocal that had just lost its local newspaper. news fulfilling normative roles Business opportunity: Looking for a new job, they thought “I was astonished with Both William Perrin and Rachel Howells attributed to journalism. There When hyperlocals try to fund of the start-up as a win-win. But after combined their own experiences with are also actors trying to promote their journalism, they face the seven “precarious, but never dull” years, how successful this a broader knowledge of the sector. In professionalisation and media same challenges as traditional the Magnet was closed in 2016. was, first in the role of 2009 Perrin founded the public service ethics in the hyperlocal sector, media: How to get readership to Democratic value: project Talk About Local, and later Money will probably never be just networking between such as IMPRESS and C4CJ. pay and competition from actors One of the early British sites, Kings shifted his focus even more towards the overruling drive to start a There might be local exceptions, like Google and Facebook. The Cross Environment was launched by local people, and then consulting for people and organisations hyperlocal journalism venture. but on the whole, it is unlikely limited human resources in a William Perrin in London in 2005. His interested in hyperlocal online news. Some people will run a site as I started by accident to that the resources to perform microbusiness and the difficulty of motivation was never to be a local Howells, while working as a hyperlocal a hobby, others aim to make accountable journalism or to scaling also makes the challenge journalist, but to find a way to network write in a form that was editor, did her PhD on the democratic a (modest) living and grow. act as a Fourth Estate will ever greater for the hyperlocal sector. the community together, “so people a bit like journalism.” deficit in a town with no newspaper in Some just want to mirror the become comparable to traditional On the other hand, this is a 2015, and has also researched the local local community. Despite media. On the other hand: sector of innovation, and the news industry in Wales with Cardiff various ambitions, they all 1 there is a difference between most resilient hyperlocals have University lecturer Andy Williams . contribute to media plurality. nothing and something. multiple revenue streams. Perrin and Howells can be said to represent two different starting points, but with local democracy as a common factor. Another example is Jack Davies, Support requires resources: Work with the sector as a whole: who started Tongwynlais.com in 2012, In order to support independent grassroots publishing or Networks, like the Talk About Local un-conferences, are and describes his motivation as more microbusinesses of journalism, someone has to put up valuable to create identity and strengthen the sector. of a creative urge. The site covers the resources. This could be staff funded by other actors Working with preconditions for the sector as a whole is a small village with 2,000 residents who can work with networks, training and technical or also more rewarding, since the field is very inconstant. outside of Cardiff. Davies did not business solutions for the sector as a whole. Support C4CJ, as well as News Revenue Hub in San Diego, USA, know anything about the place until he could also mean money: State subsidies, charitable want to work systematically with the sector in for example moved there. At first he just wanted to funding, and so on. Support could be directed towards training and development or providing actual resources put the village on the map for tourists, encouraging quality journalism or access to independent such as Wordpress templates. The hyperlocal publisher when “it just snowballed, soon I was local information in various geographical settings. is most likely fully occupied with creating content and meeting parents and so on. If I hadn’t revenue streams, with little time for everything else. Via done this, I wouldn’t know a fraction of these hubs, parties interested in supporting the sector the people I know now”, he says. But can do so indirectly – be it the government, funders or he has no intentions of turning the site other organisations concerned with local democracy. into a business, the population is too Dr Andy Williams 1 Their forthcoming book on the subject is ‘The decline of local newspapers and the rise of online community news’. 2 3 “They needed affirmation, a sense of community; that they were not crazy – a lot of them would often small for a commercial news service, “Quite a lot of people None of the people above can be Like the UK, there are many examples say they thought they and the main purpose is still to give said to be The Typical Hyperlocal of amateurs or semi-professionals were. The purpose himself a meaningful and creative always ask me, what’s Publisher. No hyperlocal really is starting hyperlocal sites in Sweden. leisure activity, and a change from next for Caerphilly ‘typical’. Scratch the surface, and you The hyperlocals might start in a of the networking his day job as a software developer. Observer, are you going often get a very personal and unique depopulated area or a growing city, was never to create a story. I have often been fascinated aiming for information or journalism, formal organisation Richard Gurner, the founder of to go into other areas by the very different circumstances stories or news alerts, as a business or Caerphilly Observer is perhaps best of Wales, am I going that can lead to an actual start-up.