Sarah Hartley, editor of Guardian Local in the United Kingdom, last week characterized hyperlocal news in ten bullet points. Some of them were on the mark: participation from the author and the community, a willingness to link to outside sources, a spirit of independent coverage, and (sadly) a general state of shit brokeness. Hartley also threw in the characteristic of “opinion blended with fact,” though I’ll argue the act of weighing another’s objectivity is a subjective exercise.

Hartley’s blog post is worth the read, though I’m tired of trying to define the nature of hyperlocal news. It is what it is, and it ain’t what it ain’t.

However, I’m in a twist over what Barb Palser, director of digital media with McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, called the hazards of hyperlocal. In the June/July issue of American Journalism Review, Palser described hyperlocal news as “difficult, expensive and not for the faint of heart.” The perceived low demand for hyperlocal news, plus market saturation by way of existing news outlets, startup websites, blogs and social-networking sites, makes it nothing more than a financially unsustainable labor of love, she wrote.

Is hyperlocal news difficult and not for the faint of heart? Yes. No one said it would be easy. Is it expensive? When one considers the cost of labor — I’m talking about the true cost, including all those hours that hyperlocalists put in for free — then yes, it can get expensive.

But those descriptors apply to any new business or industry. Replace “hyperlocal news” with “pizzeria” and the same holds true. Pizza’s a tough gig and can get expensive. The perceived low demand for fat-laden cheese on top of high-sodium sauce and carbohydrate-rich crust, plus market saturation by way of pizzerias and other fast food eateries on every city block, amounts to a financially unsustainable blah blah blah.

It’s not about the quantity and quick availability of that pizza — er, hyperlocal news. It’s about quality. Urban dwellers (and probably some suburbanites) have myriad options when it comes to where they spend their time and money. Still, they gravitate towards the service or product they feel is best, even if more convenient or cheaper options exist. It’s what I’ve previously called the “emotional value” that a business lends to its community, and with careful business planning that fits the local microeconomy, I believe it can be profitable.

Is being the best at one’s business difficult and not for the faint of heart? Hellz yeah. Can it get expensive? Perhaps. But there’s always demand for a better product — pizza, hyperlocal news, whatever. It’s up to entrepreneurs to supply that better product.

Photos courtesy of Flickr user Adam Kuban.

I still think this model sucked, but it wasn’t just a bad business model. It was the wrong business model for that area. Here’s why.

To keep the New Jersey Local running, The Times would have needed a large pool of unpaid student interns. They have that for their New York hyperlocal sites, with more than 480,000 students in the City University system, which includes a J-school and at least two colleges with strong writing programs. CUNY’s J-school already mans the Brooklyn Local, while students from New York University’s journalism program will work the upcoming East Village Local in Manhattan.

The Local didn’t have that in its New Jersey beat, which covered Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange in Essex County. Seton Hall University sits in the middle of South Orange but has an enrollment of only 10,000 students. Nearby Montclair State University has 18,000 students, and the Newark campus of Rutgers University has 11,500 students. There wasn’t enough wiggle room for error or missed partnerships.

The take-home lesson from the New Jersey Local experiment is this: Hyperlocal business models aren’t always about scale. What works in a large market won’t necessarily shrink to fit a small market. Instead, hyperlocalists must put attention into their beats’ microeconomies. If a neighborhood can’t support a news outlet’s business  model, then that model needs revision.

For example, my former hyperlocal site’s business model relied on advertising revenue. However, my coverage area was underdeveloped as far as businesses and services go — advertisers didn’t exist, and The Great Recession didn’t help. On the flip side (and contrary to what was happening across the larger region), the neighborhood had plenty of homeowners’ associations unaffected by the mortgage crisis and very active in civic affairs.

My for-profit company spent three years trying to tap blood from the advertising stone. It would have been better off as a nonprofit funded through donations from those homeowners’ associations. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Scale does not equal sustainability or solvency. That goes for The New York Times and independent hyperlocal outlets. But an appreciation for what a neighborhood can support will go a long way.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user pillowhead designs.