I’ll give The Times credit for giving this model a try. Certainly, it had big obstacles to tackle — the departure of Jersey Local’s managing editor, and the publication’s inability to make “the right partnership,” as one of its editors told Business Insider.

I should say that this model’s failure may just be a matter of the area’s microeconomic environment. The New York Locals benefit from a massive pool of university students. (The CUNY system alone has 200,000 students, including those attending its J-school and writing programs at Baruch and Brooklyn colleges.) On the flip side, the Jersey Local’s beat had only Seton Hall University. Montclair State and Rutgers-Newark universities aren’t too far away, but it may not have been a practical commute for unpaid student interns.

Back to the drawing board.

Not until 2 months ago, did it dawn on us that bloggers, specifically hyperlocal, could possibly benefit from our platform design. Until recently, it has been difficult for us to identify someone who could articulate the challenges and needs of this community, until I found your blog. Without giving away too much of our “secret sauce” away in a public forum, we simply give people the ability to develop, manage and broadcast content, audio or text, into very specific geographic locations. Ultimately, this content can be viewed by any person, geographically near the epicenter of the broadcast, using a mobile device or pc with an internet connection. Thus, a user, depending on their current location, can see completely different content because a 5 mile shift in their physical location could, in theory, produce different results.

So, based on your articles, what we are doing is potentially a viable solution because the technical and administrative issues are solved, content can be segmented and underserved communities can now find their voice in a exclusively hyperlocal communication and information channel. If anyone is willing to help us better understand the needs and how we can help, three little guys in Florida are willing to listen. You can find me on Linkedin and Facebook.

http://www.thehyperlocalist.com/tag/news-neutrality/