Hyperlocal News Websites : CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

Mar 1, 2012 04:14 PM

55423.info

A community college-affiliated hyperlocal for Richfield, Minn.

By Leah Binkovitz

55423.info.png RICHFIELD, MINNESOTA — Mark Plenke, a journalism and communications instructor at Normandale Community College, created 55423.info during his recent yearlong sabbatical, envisioning the site as both a news outlet for the town of Richfield and a hands-on course for his students. Before launching the site (which takes its name from Richfield's zip code), Plenke conducted a survey of 43 community members at a...

Feb 13, 2012 04:17 PM

ARLnow.com

Community, crime, and culture news for a D.C. suburb

By Tyler Jones

arlnow.com.png ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — Shortly after noon on Aug. 25, 2010, Dimas Pinson was waiting for the Orange Line train at the Virginia Square Metro station in Arlington, Va. when he heard someone shout, "Get off the tracks!" A man suffering from an epileptic seizure had fallen onto the tracks across the platform and was unresponsive. As a train appeared in the tunnel, Pinson, a retired Marine Corps...

Jan 5, 2011 08:00 PM

Baristanet

Conversational hyperlocal news for New Jersey's Essex County

By Mike Madden

MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY — There's something about the smell of steaming coffee grinds that sets the curious journalist in everyone... percolating. Coffee-guzzlers have always used cafes as something of a casual newsroom, a place for gossiping and sharing tidbits about everything from daytime soaps to national politics. And that was the starting point for Debbie Galant and Liz George, the editors, founders, and owners of the...

Oct 26, 2011 06:00 PM

Berkeleyside

News and notes from California's most quotable town

By Daniel Luzer

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — Frances Dinkelspiel had worked as a journalist for two decades--reporting for the Syracuse Newspapers and the San Jose Mercury News--before she and two other colleagues started Berkeleyside.com. In Dinkelspiel's opinion, Berkeley is too interesting a city not to have its own hyperlocal news site. "The University of California's here, it has this really long liberal radical political tradition, it's the...

Jan 11, 2012 04:06 PM

Brown Line Media

An independently owned network of three sites reporting on Chicago's North Side

By Ian Fullerton

brown.line.media.png CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Though he writes a vast majority of the posts on his flagship news site, Center Square Journal, Mike Fourcher prefers the title of publisher over journalist. "That's an important distinction," he says. "I do employ journalists... but the person that runs a baseball bat company is not a carpenter." A native Chicagoan, Fourcher launched Center Square in early 2010, after...

Sep 13, 2011 11:23 AM

Buffalo Rising

A grassroots print startup hits its stride online

By Paige Rentz

BUFFALO, NEW YORK — The mission of Buffalo Rising is embedded in its very name. A decade ago, as Elmwood Avenue shop owner Newell Nussbaumer began to witness a resurgence in his native city, he saw grassroots movements growing and activists who needed a voice. He sought to provide that with Buffalo Rising, first a tri-annual and later a monthly print product, and...

Mar 24, 2011 11:55 AM

CapeCodTODAY.com

A hyperlocal (and entrepreneurial) news pioneer

By Dohini Patel

CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS — CapeCodToday, one of the first hyperlocal news websites in the nation, and reports on all things Cape Cod. Topics the site covers include politics, arts and culture, business, education, and sports. Walter Brooks, founder of CapeCodToday, is a veteran journalist with over half a century of experience. Prior to establishing the site, Brooks wrote for The Village Voice, the New...

Apr 23, 2012 12:42 AM

CapitolHillSeattle.com

Hyperlocal news for the city's core of cool

By Patricia Sauthoff

CapitolHillSeatlle.com.png SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Densely populated and filled with restaurants, nightspots, and shops, Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood is one of the city's hubs of cool. Even those who don't live in the area keep tabs on the neighborhood's comings and goings to see what hot spot will arrive next. Not a bad home for a news website. Enter CapitolHillSeattle.com, a hyperlocal community news...

Jun 20, 2012 12:52 PM

Chicago Phoenix

Chicago LGBT media goes digital (and grows up)

By Ian Fullerton

chicago.phoenix.png CHICAGO, IL — Gay media in Chicago has struggled in its search for identity. In recent years, two of the city's most prominent LGBT publications, Gay Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Free Press, shut down after transitioning from the traditional "bar rag" format, with content centered on entertainment and sex culture, to a more issue-related news and features focus. Some observers speculated that revenue problems...

Feb 6, 2012 03:36 PM

Corona del Mar Today

A one-woman news operation for a wealthy Newport Beach, Calif. neighborhood

By David Riedel

carona.del.mar.today.png CORONA DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA — When former newspaper reporter Amy Senk decided to get back into journalism, she wasn't sure how to begin. "When I was reporting, we barely had Internet or e-mail," she says. Senk left her job at the Contra Costa Times in the mid-1990s and focused on raising a family. When her husband was diagnosed with an aggressive blood cancer in late...

Dec 8, 2011 04:11 PM

CountyNewsLIVE.com

A fast-growing news network for rural Missouri

By Caitlin Kasunich

contynewslive.com.png HERMANN, MISSOURI — Although the homepage of Gasconade County's CountyNewsLIVE.com has the look and feel of a simple, straightforward blog, it is actually the first of three frequently updated Missouri-based hyperlocal news websites founded by writer and publisher Jeff Noedel. Launched in March 2008, the Gasconade County site primarily covers rural Hermann, Missouri, a small agricultural town that attracts tourists with its nearby...

May 3, 2011 12:23 PM

DavidsonNews.net

Ambitious local news site for Davidson, N.C.

By Justin Yang

DAVIDSON, NORTH CAROLINA — David Boraks, a veteran journalist of thirty years and long-time resident of Davidson, N.C., started DavidsonNews.net after returning from a year abroad in China and Taiwan. Upon returning home, Boraks found that staying updated on current news was not as easy as he had remembered, and so he started an online town newsletter. The newsletter soon evolved into a full-blown...

Mar 28, 2011 08:32 PM

DNAinfo

Hyperlocal news for Manhattan

By Alex Fekula

Dna.info.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Manhattan surely has more media outlets per square foot than just about anywhere else in the world, but DNAinfo has proved that there's still plenty of room on the island for local news. Conceived by Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, the site is a compendium of hyperlocal news for Manhattan's many communities. The site's ten separate verticals provide coverage of neighborhoods...

Oct 31, 2011 11:33 AM

Evanston Now

A hyperlocal news site holds its own in a media-saturated Chicago suburb

By Ian Fullerton

evanston.now.png EVANSTON, ILLINOIS — As a native Evanstonian, Bill Smith remembers a time when the small suburban municipality just north of Chicago had only one paper to its name, the weekly Evanston Review. "For the latter half of the century there had been a few start-ups, but those mostly failed," he says. Today, that field has expanded, thanks in part to Smith, who logs around sixty...

May 7, 2012 01:46 PM

Eye on Annapolis

Unadorned, up-to-the-minute news for Maryland's capital city

By Maura R. O'Connor

eye.on.annapolis.png ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND — Eye on Annapolis, a website covering Maryland's Chesapeake Bay and capital city of Annapolis, has forged a pragmatic model for local news coverage, carving out a niche for itself among the city's media by providing readers quick and frequent news updates. The site focuses on breaking news including traffic reports and crime, as well as a community calendar, coverage of...

Mar 24, 2011 04:00 PM

Front Porch Forum

Social networking and citizen journalism in northern Vermont

By Armin Rosen

Front.Porch.Forum.png BURLINGTON, VERMONT — Vermont-based social networking site Front Porch Forum has earned an intense regional following, partly thanks to its success as a venue for hyperlocal citizen journalism. FPF users within 120 small, geographically specific networks write daily and weekly newsletters covering the most quotidian neighborhood news, from church talent shows to snow removal reports. (Since FPF newsletters aren't archived online, we can't provide...

Nov 30, 2011 03:19 PM

GazeboNews

News and "stuff" for two affluent Chicago suburbs

By Justin Peters

LAKE BLUFF, ILLINOIS — When, in 2006, Adrienne Fawcett moved to Lake Bluff, Illinois, a leafy suburb thirty-five miles north of downtown Chicago, the local news scene was in repose. "I felt the people I was talking to in the community had a better sense of what was going on than the media covering the community," she remembers. At the time, the town of 5,722...

Jan 12, 2012 10:19 AM

GrossePointeToday.com

Nonprofit hyperlocal news in suburban Detroit

By Maura R. O'Connor

grossepointetoday.com.png GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN — When the 2010 Census was released, it revealed some interesting changes in the metro Detroit community of Grosse Pointe. Whereas in 2000 the non-white population of the area was marginal, in 2010 the percentage of minorities had risen steeply. The number of African Americans living in Grosse Pointe area, for instance, had increased by 300 percent. The online news site <a...

Jan 19, 2012 03:19 PM

Leimert Park Beat

A hyperlocal news site and social network for a neighborhood in Los Angeles

By Chasen Marshall

leimert.park.beat.png LEIMERT PARK, CALIFORNIA — Eddie North-Hager moved to Leimert Park, an 11,000-person neighborhood in Los Angeles, because it was the type of community in which he wanted to raise his family. And yet whenever he read anything about the area in the news, it seemed that he encountered endless versions of the same negative story. "If you would search for things about the neighborhood online,...

Nov 7, 2011 03:26 PM

LocallyGrownNews.com

A network of news sites devoted to local food coverage

By Maura R. O'Connor

locallygrownnews.com.png ELON, NORTH CAROLINA — Journalist Michelle Ferrier has been involved in creating online communities for over ten years, and was the editor of MytopiaCafe.com, a now-defunct hyperlocal news offering by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Although MytopiaCafe gained a devoted following of 3,000 users, Ferrier argued in a 2009 piece for Poynter that the site was doomed from the beginning. In retrospect, Ferrier felt...

Jul 13, 2011 12:54 PM

LymeLine

Hyperlocal news for two small Connecticut towns

By Mike Madden

OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT — Founded in 2003 by veteran publisher Jack Turner and now headed by news editor Olwen Logan, LymeLine had the humble beginnings one might expect for a site that covers two towns (Lyme and Old Lyme) with a combined population of fewer than 10,000. When Turner first decided to venture into the world of online journalism, paperless news had yet to...

Feb 2, 2012 02:47 PM

Milford Live

Hyperlocal news for a small town in Delaware

By David Riedel

milford.live.png MILFORD, DELAWARE — Dave Burris and Bryan Shupe grew up in Milford, Del., and later crossed paths while working on Republican campaigns. Burris had experience running a digital lifestyle magazine called Coastal Sussex Weekly and wanted to start a hyperlocal news site for Milford. He thought Shupe, who had become disillusioned by the negativity in politics and was ready to move on, would...

Oct 12, 2011 12:02 PM

My Edmonds News

A burgeoning news source and business in the Seattle suburbs

By Caitlin Kasunich

my.edmonds.news.png EDMONDS, WASHINGTON — Since graduating from Seattle University in 1979 with a journalism degree, Teresa Wippel's career has veered in and out of journalism, but she hopes that she's back in the fourth estate for good now. She started out working as a community newspaper reporter for a chain of Seattle-area weeklies and a small daily paper in Port Angeles, Wash., before becoming a staff...

Sep 16, 2011 11:16 AM

MyEugene

Community news and citizen journalism for Oregon's second city

By Leah Binkovitz

EUGENE, OREGON — Consider MyEugene your full-service hyperlocal news site in the second largest city in Oregon. If you're new to town and want to know where to buy dog food or recycle Styrofoam, just ask Jaculynn Peterson, MyEugene's founder and editor. Like many of MyEugene's readers, Peterson is not native to Eugene or the West Coast. But when she moved there in...

Oct 31, 2011 01:52 PM

MyVeronaNJ.com

Wide-ranging hyperlocal news for a New York City suburb

By Caitlin Kasunich

myveronanj.com.png VERONA, NEW JERSEY — Editor Virginia Citrano has worked at the intersection of journalism and technology for nearly three decades. In 1983, she was hired by the Wall Street Journal/Europe, an early innovator in the use of computers in the newsroom. She got her hands on her first news website in 1995, as an assistant managing editor at Crain's New York Business. From 2000 to...

Jul 5, 2011 02:37 PM

NEast Philly

Neighborhood news for working-class Philadelphia

By Alex Fekula

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — While still an undergraduate journalism major at Temple University, Shannon McDonald launched the hyperlocal NEast Philly, an online only news source that provides daily coverage for the Northeast section of Philadelphia. In the site's own words, NEast Philly offers "daily news, analysis, multimedia, columns and commentary on everything that interests the proud, working-class neighborhoods of The NEast." <li...

Jan 5, 2011 06:00 PM

Oakland Local

Susan Mernit & co. cover their corner of the Bay

By David Downs

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — Born from the community outrage that followed a local police-on-civilian killing caught on cell phone and spread across the Internet, one-year-old Oakland Local hopes to grow its professional reporting in 2011, while keeping its street-level perspective on the sometimes dangerous California port city it covers. Founder Susan Mernit edits and publishes the Local with an editorial staff of eight--none of whom...

Oct 24, 2011 04:44 PM

Ocean Beach Bulletin

Hyperlocal news for San Francisco's western edge

By Alex Fekula

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — San Francisco is home to one of the largest urban beaches in the country, Ocean Beach. The surrounding neighborhoods, the Sunset and the Richmond District, resemble suburban sprawl more than a city, and are comprised mostly of families, surfers, and those seeking a quieter, less urban-intensive lifestyle. The Ocean Beach Bulletin provides hyperlocal coverage for this part of town,...

Sep 14, 2011 02:48 PM

Oswego County Today

An early online news source by a mayor-turned-newsman

By Paige Rentz

FULTON, NEW YORK — When Mayor Don Bullard lost his bid for re-election as chief executive of the small city of Fulton, N.Y. in 1998, he and three members of his city hall team set out in search of a way to continue working for their community. In the waning years of the last millennium, online news was still a young industry, but the former...

Mar 1, 2012 10:37 AM

Patch

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

NEW YORK, NEW YORK —In February 2009, South Orange, Maplewood, and Milburn-Short Hills, three small but relatively affluent New Jersey communities, became the first towns to host a local Patch site, launching a network that has since grown to include more than 860 sites in twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. Because of its rapid expansion and the accompanying media scrutiny, Patch has played a central...

Feb 24, 2012 11:29 AM

Patch (California)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

California is a place for experimentation for Patch, as it extends its coverage to two large communities there: the military and their families, and the Latino population. The network's first attempt at a "Patch Military" site is Camp Pendleton Patch; while it is not sponsored by the Marine Corps base, it is run by a former US Marine. Meanwhile, the first three "Patch...

Feb 24, 2012 11:50 AM

Patch (Connecticut)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Annie Wu

patch.connecticut.png Connecticut was the second state to host a Patch site. The network came to the state just after launching in New Jersey and just before expansion into New York. The state's first Patch launched in the summer of 2009 in the southern town of New Canaan. It has since expanded to include 62 sites covering towns across the state. CTWatchdog.com, a...

Feb 24, 2012 12:04 PM

Patch (District of Columbia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.district.of.columbia.png The nation's capital is home to just one Patch. The site covers the ritzy neighborhood of Georgetown, which is home to the university of the same name. The site includes coverage of university news and events, developments on the ever-pressing issues of real estate and traffic, and an ongoing "Best-of" debate about Georgetown's most desirable cocktails. Though Georgetown Patch is alone...

Feb 24, 2012 12:35 PM

Patch (Florida)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.florida.png Patch expanded into Florida in late 2010, and currently has nineteen sites in the state. As an early state in the 2012 GOP primary and a battleground state in the general election, Florida fits nicely with Patch editor-in-chief Brian Farnham's goal (discussed with CJR last year) to involve Patch in 2012 election coverage, and with AOL's goal to cash in on political ad...

Feb 24, 2012 12:47 PM

Patch (Georgia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.georgia.png Patch moved to Georgia in 2010, and has since rolled out forty-three sites in the state. Some sites focus on entire cities, such as Athens or Marietta, while others stick to the Atlanta suburbs--a more common model for Patch sites nationwide. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in...

Feb 24, 2012 12:54 PM

Patch (Illinois)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.illinois.png Illinois has one of the larger collections of Patch sites-fifty-nine in all. Not surprisingly, the sites are most prevalent in the Chicago suburbs. The state also includes two universities contributing to coverage through the "PatchU" program: Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than...

Feb 24, 2012 01:00 PM

Patch (Iowa)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.iowa.png Iowa is currently home to nine Patch sites, with one more launching soon. These nine sites were part of a push to populate Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina with Patches in time for the 2012 Republican primary/caucus season. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District...

Feb 24, 2012 01:06 PM

Patch (Maryland)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.maryland.png A relatively small state geographically, Maryland is home to a huge number of Patch sites. There are currently fifty-two live sites, with more in the works. Home to both Baltimore and D.C. suburbs, the state is a prime spot for Patch's strategy of targeting affluent, technologically savvy communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 01:11 PM

Patch (Massachusetts)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.massachusetts.png Patch brought its business to Massachusetts in early 2010, launching sites in coverage in Marlborough, Sudbury, Wellesley, Newton, Quincy, Belmont, Bedford, Milton, Needham and Concord. Among its competitors at the time were CentralMassNews.com, and a host of print newspapers that also maintained online presences. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched...

Feb 24, 2012 01:17 PM

Patch (Michigan)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.michigan.png Patch expanded into Michigan in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. The network has since launched a total of twenty-nine sites in the Great Lakes State, many in the Detroit suburbs.] Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia....

Feb 24, 2012 01:22 PM

Patch (Minnesota)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By AJ Hudson

patch.minnesota.png Patch expanded into Minnesota in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-five individual Patch sites in Minnesota. Although sites are concentrated around the Twin Cities, coverage areas vary from urban areas like Southwest Minneapolis to suburbs like Richfield to slightly farther flung towns like Northfield. Read CJR's full...

Feb 24, 2012 01:27 PM

Patch (Missouri)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.missouri.png Patch expanded into Missouri in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-four individual Patch sites in Missouri, and the Missouri School of Journalism contributes to coverage of the state as part of the PatchU program. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 12:14 PM

Patch (New Hampshire)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.new.hampshire.png Patch launched in New Hampshire in June of 2011 in anticipation of the 2012 presidential election primaries. As Arianna Huffington, president of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, remarked, the expansion would put Patch "squarely on the front lines of the presidential campaign." Patch's initial New Hampshire launch consisted of ten communities: Amherst, Bedford, Concord, Exeter, Hampton-North Hampton, Merrimack, Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem, and Windham....

Feb 24, 2012 12:20 PM

Patch (New Jersey)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.new.jersey.png The Patch network's first sites were launched in New Jersey in September of 2009, in the cities of Maplewood, Millburn-Short Hills, and South Orange. Today, Patch operates sites in more than 80 New Jersey communities. New Jersey remains a "petri dish" for Patch to develop business ideas and strategies. In December 2011, Patch merged two sites together after concluding that the...

Feb 24, 2012 12:28 PM

Patch (New York)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.new.york.png After the first three Patch sites launched in suburban New Jersey in 2009, an expansion into New York's Westchester County and Long Island communities wasn't far behind that same year. Today, New York is home to seventy-one Patch sites and counting. In addition to Patch's usual suburban targets, the network has also grown to include individual, geographically small but highly populated neighborhoods within the boroughs...

Feb 24, 2012 12:22 PM

Patch (North Carolina)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.north.carolina.png Patch currently has only one site in North Carolina. It serves the community of active duty soldiers, civilians, and Army families stationed at Fort Bragg, which is located north of Fayetteville. The base spreads across four counties and has a population of around 40,000, according to the 2010 U.S. census. The site launched in June 2011. AOL announced the launch of...

Feb 24, 2012 12:26 PM

Patch (Ohio)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

Patch arrived in Ohio in 2010, launching twenty-four sites. According to a December 2010 story in Crain's Cleveland Business, the first three sites appeared in the Cleveland area, and Jean Dubail, former online editor of Cleveland's Plain Dealer, served as a regional editor during the launch. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860...

Feb 24, 2012 12:33 PM

Patch (Pennsylvania)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.pennsylvania.png In 2010, Patch launched twelve community sites in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, a densely populated area on the eastern edge of the state formerly propped up by the steel and manufacturing industries, and now making the transition into the tech sector. Since then, the Patch network in Pennsylvania has grown extensively, to fifty-nine sites, and includes large clusters of sites in the suburbs of Philadelphia and...

Feb 24, 2012 12:45 PM

Patch (Rhode Island)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.rhode.island.png Patch came to Rhode Island in October 2010, launching in Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth after the Newport Daily News ended free access to its website. A month later, Patch launched in eighteen more communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states...

Feb 24, 2012 12:43 PM

Patch (South Carolina)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.south.carolina.png Patch arrived in South Carolina in June 2011 with an initial launch of four sites serving Charleston-area communities with populations ranging from 15,000 to 100,000 people. There are currently eleven Patch sites in the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia. For more...

Mar 1, 2012 01:29 AM

Patch (Virginia)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.virginia.png The Old Dominion is home to thirty-one Patch sites in all, but the sites are not evenly spread out through the state, geographically speaking. The overwhelming majority of Virginia's Patches are located in the fast-growing, affluent and tech-savvy Washington, D.C. suburban neighborhoods in and around Fairfax County, in the northeast tip of the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here....

Feb 24, 2012 12:56 PM

Patch (Washington State)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Justin Yang

patch.washington.png Patch launched in Washington state in October 2010, its first site focusing on University Place in Pierce County, near Tacoma. Patch later rolled out a total of fourteen sites in the tech-savvy state, concentrating on the Tacoma and Seattle areas. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states...

Feb 24, 2012 12:59 PM

Patch (Wisconsin)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner

patch.wisconsin.png The Patch network in Wisconsin consists of sixteen sites, all of which are concentrated around Milwaukee with the exception of Hudson Patch, which is more than 300 miles away, near Minneapolis-St. Paul. Fortunately for Patch, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced in late 2011 that it would be putting its website behind a paywall, opening the door for potential traffic...

Feb 2, 2012 11:12 AM

Plymouth Daily News

Hyperlocal news for "America's hometown"

By Caitlin Kasunich

plymouth.daily.news.png PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS — For almost two decades, editor and publisher Walter Brooks and his family have run online media ventures in several Massachusetts communities. Starting in the early months of 1996, Brooks helped launch the online edition of the vacation guide Best Read Guide/Cape Cod. Just a year later, he started the hyperlocal news site CapeCodToday.com--an early example of the hyperlocal...

Dec 20, 2011 12:06 AM

Prairie Village Post

Hyperlocal news for three small Kansas City suburbs

By Tyler Jones

prairie.village.post.png PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KANSAS — On November 21, 2011, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback spoke to a group of high school students on the importance of being active in their government and community. Senior Emma Sullivan wasted no time in exercising her First Amendment rights when she tweeted: "Just made mean comments at gov Brownback and told him he sucked, in person. #heblowsalot." Brownback's communication staff flagged the tweet...

Jan 23, 2012 12:21 PM

redbankgreen

Hyperlocal news for Red Bank, New Jersey

By Erik Shilling

RED BANK, NEW JERSEY — On June 1, 2006, when John T. Ward and his wife Trish Russoniello launched redbankgreen, a hyperlocal news site for Red Bank, New Jersey, Ward says that he had little idea what to expect. With the help of Russoniello, a graphic artist, Ward had designed a bare-bones website on Typepad, and, the morning of the launch, e-mailed a...

Jan 9, 2012 12:15 PM

RiverheadLocal

Local news and web advertising for Riverhead, Long Island

By Maura R. O'Connor

RIVERHEAD, NEW YORK — In 2009 Denise Civiletti tried to switch careers, but in the end she came back to journalism. She had taken a job in public relations with a local hospital after working as a publisher and editor for a decade in her hometown of Riverhead in Long Island, New York. Health care, she thought, was a growth industry that would offer better...

Jan 25, 2012 12:56 AM

Sheepshead Bites

Hyperlocal stories by the seaside in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

By Caitlin Kasunich

sheepshead.bites.png BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Nearly four years ago, the late renowned Brooklyn blogger Robert Guskind pointed out in his coverage of the 2008 Brooklyn Blogfest the pressing need for hyperlocal news sites in the borough's least-covered communities. "While some neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Park Slope are written about at length, others, such as Sunset Park and Sheepshead Bay - where...

Oct 26, 2011 03:33 PM

SomervilleToday.com

Hyperlocal news for a small town in New Jersey

By Caitlin Kasunich

SOMERVILLE, NEW JERSEY — When he relocated to New Jersey in 1987, publisher and editor Loren Fisher already had an extensive journalistic résumé. Starting in 1978, he worked at a myriad of newspapers around the country, including the Star-Press and Shelbyville News in Muncie and Shelbyville, Indiana, respectively, as well as at the Marietta Times in Marietta, Ohio. When he moved to New Jersey, he...

Feb 15, 2012 11:43 AM

South King Media

A network of six hyperlocals in Washington State

By Maura R. O'Connor

south.king.media.png BURIEN, WASHINGTON — In 2007, Scott Schaefer, an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who worked on shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy and The Arsenio Hall Show, decided to create some comedy websites from his home in King County, Washington. He quickly discovered that getting advertising or creating revenue for comedy sites was extraordinarily difficult. "You're competing at a national level," says Schaefer. "Nothing was...

May 31, 2011 11:48 AM

Street Fight

A news source for the burgeoning hyperlocal industry

By Arvin Temkar

BOULDER, COLORADO — A site named "Street Fight" has to deliver action, and the brand new site dedicated to covering the hyperlocal industry expects to do just that-- though it's probably not the kind of action a teenager who stumbles onto the site after a Google search would expect. Hyperlocal is becoming big business. While the term usually refers to local news, Street Fight...

Mar 31, 2011 11:40 AM

The Bold Italic

Gannett's bold move in consumer-oriented journalism

By Kathy Gilsinan

The.Bold.Italic.png SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — The Bold Italic is an experiment. Slickly designed but still in "beta," the Gannett-owned San Francisco website has an image-heavy layout, an alt-weekly feel, and a focus on helping its readers find new places to spend their free time. "It's not meant to replace anything" in the San Francisco print media, says Michael Maness, who, as Gannett's vice president of...

Mar 15, 2012 11:41 AM

The Brooklyn Ink

Student reporting on Brooklyn and beyond

By Tom Marcinko

brooklyn.ink.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — At about 1:30am on Nov. 15, 2011, student reporters at The Brooklyn Ink received a tip that police would soon clear protestors from New York City's Zuccotti Park, the focal point of Occupy Wall Street. Rather than get their professors out of bed, the students jumped on the story, providing live coverage throughout the...

Mar 24, 2011 04:14 PM

The Dagger

Sharp local reporting for Harford County, Md.

By Alex Fekula

The.Dagger.png BEL AIR, MARYLAND — Harford County, Maryland-based journalist Brian Goodman wanted to start a band. He had a name picked out: The Dagger. After plans for the band fizzled, Goodman decided to take the name and start a local news blog instead. The journalistic ensemble known as The Dagger officially debuted in April of 2007, and has since evolved into a popular alternative news resource...

Dec 15, 2011 11:32 AM

The Lo-Down

News for New York's Lower East Side

By David Riedel

the.lo.down.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — When husband and wife Ed Litvak and Traven Rice started The Lo-Down, a hyperlocal news site reporting on Manhattan's Lower East Side, it wasn't with the intention of creating a business. Litvak, a television news producer, and Rice, a filmmaker, took the site live in January 2009 after two years living in the neighborhood, and thought of it...

Apr 20, 2012 06:22 PM

The Local East Village

NYU student reporting for the NYT

By Maura R. O'Connor

east.vallage.local.png NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In 2009, The New York Times made drastic changes in its approach to local news. The year saw the closure of the papers City section, but also the launch of The Local. A web-based hyperlocal reporting initiative, The Local created two separate sections of nytimes.com: one devoted to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene and...

Jan 14, 2011 12:47 PM

The Rapidian

Grand Rapids-based citizen journalism

By Alex Fekula

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — Grand Rapids-based The Rapidian takes the concept of grassroots citizen journalism to heart. A community-wide project, operating under a for-us/by-us ethos, The Rapidian was created by the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, a nonprofit media and technology support organization for the Grand Rapids area. The Center began as a public access television station, and currently operates two television stations, a noncommercial...

Jul 25, 2011 04:00 PM

Universal Hub

A wicked smart Boston hyperlocal

By Connor Boals

universal.hub.png BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — What started as a simple online directory of businesses, restaurants, and other establishments serving Boston has grown into a full-blown hub of Beantown information. After a layoff prompted him to take his side project full-time, Adam Gaffin set about building Universal Hub into a hyperlocal news hub with an original Boston twist. If you want the day's biggest stories, stick...

Mar 27, 2013 10:43 AM

Uptown Messenger

Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans

By Meredith Qualls

Uptown.Messenger.png NEW ORLEANS, LA — Robert Morris began his career in print journalism, working for a string of weekly and daily newspapers before deciding he needed a change. "I liked journalism and I liked my job and I really liked the people I worked with, but it seemed like such a long road to be a 28-year-old reporter watching the newspaper industry shrink," he says. <!--...

Jan 5, 2012 11:22 AM

Urban Milwaukee

Reporting and advocacy on urban issues in the Cream City

By Paige Rentz

urban.milwaukee.png MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN — After merging two local blogs to launch a news site several years ago, web developers Jeramey Jannene and Dave Reid have a strong presence in downtown Milwaukee, serving up local urban news on their combined effort, Urban Milwaukee. Jannene and Reid do not shy away from writing with a very defined perspective. "We're not simply reporting; there's a level of...

Oct 26, 2011 05:27 PM

Village Soup

A small media chain blends print and digital local journalism

By Lauren Kirchner

village.soup.png ROCKLAND, MAINE — [UPDATE: On Friday March 9, 2012 Village Soup president Richard M. Anderson announced the closure of all Village Soup publications. In a story announcing that the company's properties would be sold at auction, the Bangor Daily News reported that Village Net Media, the Village Soup parent company, faced two outstanding loans from the First National Bank of Damariscotta. The initial...

Jun 14, 2011 09:53 AM

Watershed Post

News and environmental reporting for the Catskills

By Brett Norman

DELHI, NEW YORK — The Watershed Post, an online news source for five counties in upstate New York, made a splash last fall with its real-time coverage of widespread flooding that swept one woman to her death in the Neversink River. Its editors call this back country in the Catskill Mountains a "news desert," mostly bereft of local media coverage,...

Mar 27, 2012 01:19 PM

West Philly Local

Hyperlocal news and events for 50,000 Philadelphians

By Caitlin Kasunich

west.philly.local.png PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Just across the Schuylkill River from Center City Philadelphia, Western Philadelphia--or "West Philly," as the locals call it--is home to about 50,000 people, many of whom are students or professors at the University of Pennsylvania or Drexel University, both of which in the neighborhood. While Philadelphia media outlets run stories on West Philly as part of their broader coverage of the metro area,...

Sep 29, 2011 11:02 AM

West Seattle Blog

Defining hyperlocal in both news and business

By Erik Shilling

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — In a city that is known for its steady rain, it's not surprising that it was the weather that put West Seattle Blog on the map as well. The blog, which now averages more than 80,000 visitors per month according to Quantcast and is routinely cited in breaking news stories by the Seattle Times, started in 2005 merely as a...

Nov 21, 2011 11:38 AM

Yadkin Valley Sports

High school sports news for eighteen schools in central North Carolina

By Erik Shilling

yadkin.valley.sports.png ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA — After earning his undergraduate journalism degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1993, Eric Lusk spent more than a decade patrolling small town sports beats at a number of newspapers across the state. In 2006, he got a job at the Elkin Tribune, which has a circulation of around 4,000. But just a year later the privately-owned paper was...