Comments on: When Big Box meets hyperlocal news

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:34:26 +0000

Good point. If one can financially manage to work for oneself, then DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

By: polly kreisman

polly kreisman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:17:14 +0000

Hi Jennifer-
i agree. but i would rather be that sleep deprived. etc dum dum working for myself and building my own brand than AOLs. Sure wish you lived in NY. I have some ideas for you if you would email me? editor@theloopny.com
pek

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:43:22 +0000

Thanks for those details on the Patch job, Polly. My thing is this: I did the same work ("sleep-deprived, with a first post due at 8 am each day and a 12 hour day following or until the last City Council meeting ended.") and made less than zero dollars, multiplied by three years. If a hyperlocalist needs the money (like me), then I say go for it. But I agree that some of these big-box hyperlocal franchises won't succeed as businesses.

By: polly kreisman

polly kreisman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:34:06 +0000

Here in Westchester County, NY, patch has come in guns blazing. One editor contacted me looking for a job because, she said, she was being paid about $40,000 and was “sleep-deprived,” with a first post due at 8 am each day and a 12 hour day following (or until the last City Council meeting ended..)

On that salary she could not afford to live in the town she was “covering” and so commuted an hour each way from Brooklyn. She says her “staff” were stay at home moms who never made deadlines (no dispersions cast towards SAHMs but I agree w Ed, it’s not a journalistic cloth one is necessarily cut from…)

Some of my advertisers are trying them out. I say go for it. I think they’ll be back.

By: Ed Kuryluk

Ed Kuryluk — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:33:33 +0000

I agree Jennifer, this will ultimately be good for our sites.We have many small local businesses in town. I can move on a dime to accommodate their requests, especially the outside the box stuff. I bring ideas to them. Patch, being a part of AOL, is not as nimble.

Also, the people I’ve seen get hired by Patch, seem to be Real Estate agents looking for a second income, or soccer moms (no offense, I’m married to one). To succeed in this space you need to be savvy enough to keep your site ahead of the curve. These people aren’t cut from that cloth.

By: Is Big Box News for the Little Bloggers « The 4th Place

Is Big Box News for the Little Bloggers « The 4th Place — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:10:42 +0000

[...] via When Big Box meets hyperlocal news « The Hyperlocalist. [...]

By: AOL and Hyper-Local — Good Luck With That – GigaOM

AOL and Hyper-Local — Good Luck With That – GigaOM — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:09:29 +0000

[...] That approach can get expensive very quickly, however. And while there may be plenty of out-of-work journalists around due to newspaper industry layoffs, are there enough talented writers and reporters to staff all of the local sites Patch.com has in mind? If not, then the company will quickly have to come to grips with the wildly varying quality levels that “citizen journalism” can produce (each Patch site has a single professional journalist who works with volunteer and freelance staff). Some feel that whatever happens with Aol and its expansion, it can’t help but be good for business. [...]

By: Recommended Hyperlocal Reading : HyperlocalBlogger

Recommended Hyperlocal Reading : HyperlocalBlogger — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:46:18 +0000

[...] If you’re a local news blogger, or if you’re just interested in the subject, there’s a much more intelligent look at the AOL news, and some excellent comments, on a post by Jennifer Deseo — When Big Box meets hyperlocal news. [...]

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:28:24 +0000

I still believe that hyperlocalists who have targeted content and a viable business model don't have anything to worry about from big media. I'll use The Washington Post's hyperlocal experiment as an example. About six months after I started my publication, The Post launched LoudonExtra, a hyperlocal site in Virginia. They also bought URLs for neighborhoods throughout the DC region, including one in my beat. Admittedly, I worried about what would happen to my business. But I soon saw the differences in our products. While my site focused on "simple" content like text and still photos, LoudonExtra dumped its capital into graphic user interfaces (GUI) and all kinds of eye candy. That lack of substantive news, plus the collapse of Loudon's housing market, prompted The Post to fold it as a stand-alone publication a year (maybe a little more) after it launched. Meanwhile, my site carried on. That was my experience, but perhaps we should ask the publishers of BaristaNet how they're managing with Patch sites in their beat. I'll try to get in touch with them.

By: Tracy in WS

Tracy in WS — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:42:18 +0000

Big companies already nearly ruined the online ad market with the big advertisers by treating online as a throwaway, setting the precedent for the low rates and valuation they all bitch about unceasingly today, now that they have to lie in the bed they made. So I don’t expect them to do anything that will make sense for a true small local news org. And I expect them to abandon the market when they realize they’re not going to get rich on the backs of small local businesses the way they briefly did on the bigger ones.