Every four years, journalists descend upon Iowa, stalking would-be leaders of the free world as they shake hands, kiss babies and eat their weight in pancakes. However, the upcoming 2012 campaign season promises to have a hyperlocal twist to it. Arianna Huffington, newly appointed overlord to AOL’s content-producing properties, plans to use Patch.com editors to cover the election on a “granular” level, she told The Washington Post.

Huffington’s plan is genius: employ an army of already-embeds who won’t need lodging or driving directions, and let them lay the foundation for AOL’s larger, search engine-savvy campaign coverage. “We will have thousands and thousands of people covering the election. Covering the Republicans. Covering the Democrats. Just being transparent about it,” she said.

And that’s when my heart sank. Reporting on elections can be a major drain on hyperlocal news outlets, especially those with limited human resources. So how the hell are independent hyperlocalists supposed to compete with myriad minions of The Huffington Patch?

First, they can beat Patch to the punch. Indie hyperlocalists in states with high-profile primaries (Iowa and New Hampshire, for example), as well as those in the convention cities of Charlotte and Tampa, should immediately contact larger news outlets and promote themselves as location experts. If AOL can use its hypothetical Des Moines Patch editor (more likely, someone from its Seed content farm) to blanket the Iowa caucuses, surely The New York Times and CNN can pay Cedar Rapids‘ independent hyperlocalist to work the beat.

(Incidentally, hyperlocalists from Super-Duper Tuesday states are not shit out of luck when it comes to milking the campaign coverage. They can similarly promote themselves to NPR or some other large outlet as experts in their beat’s hot topic — unemployment, gay marriage, the effect of prolonged deployment on military families, whatever.)

Notice my use of the word “pay.” The time and energy required to cover a campaign deserve appropriate compensation from whomever is doing the hiring. National exposure will not fuel a hyperlocal news outlet while its resources are diverted to the campaign trail.

To earn that living wage, independent hyperlocalists must offer coverage that encompasses more than just the who, what and where. The material must deliver a distinct local flavor and offer unique insight into how political events and the populace interact. This connection with place, and the ability to drop a reader smack in the middle of it, will distinguish the independent hyperlocalist from a Patch editor or embedded big-media reporter.

Ultimately, if a hyperlocal news site can’t beat Patch’s campaign coverage, it should join it — sort of. Local Patch sites likely will create RSS (syndication) feeds for their campaign stories, which can then stream onto a hyperlocal news site’s sidebar. Thus, the independent hyperlocal site offers its readers a portal to political coverage without having to create content.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Carl Wycoff.

ZING! It hurt like hell, but it was the truth. When news audiences receive free content, they no longer count as customers. They’re not dropping coin to keep the lights on or the servers running. They don’t pay for writers’ salaries. And even if they contribute “emotional” value to a news outlet through reader comments, that value doesn’t do jack for a business if it doesn’t translate into dollars and cents.

In my previous attempt at hyperlocal news, I placed the audience’s satisfaction ahead of business development. It was a colossal mistake. Readers loved my frank restaurant reviews as much as restaurant owners hated them, and that meant an enormous loss of potential advertising revenue from the neighborhood’s largest industry.

This time, I hope to develop my audience and customer base simultaneously without jeopardizing the quality of my publication’s content. Here’s how:

Extend services unrelated to my publication to residents and the business community. One of the revenue streams I plan to pursue is group-discount brokering (the Groupon model). To make it work, I need a mailing list of prospective shoppers (an audience) and business customers willing to offer these shoppers a discount. To build this mailing list, I plan to attend local meet-ups to learn what residents want or need from their community, and to gently introduce the idea of group discounts. Call it market research.

That information becomes leverage when approaching business customers for group discounts. It also brings together an otherwise non-paying audience with paying customers, without selling out a news outlet’s integrity.

Build my publication’s audience slooooooowly. Since setting up a beta site earlier this month, I’ve posted only two stories. But I’ve used Twitter to publicize my organization as a news source, mostly by retweeting neighborhood-specific stories from larger news outlets and by posting photos. So far, I have 13 followers, and that’s fine with me.

This modest following allows me to test different things, from writing style and voice, to website design. The publication’s slow, deliberate development also gives me the opportunity to educate customers (in this case, advertisers) on how my business operates, not as a quick hustle but as the next evolutionary step in advertising.

Those are my first two steps in building the business, though I should keep a few spare ideas in my pocket should neither of these approaches work.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user chillhiro.

So it was with brainy interest that I spoke recently with Terry (whose real name I’ve obfuscated for privacy’s sake). Terry’s fighting the good fight, running a nonprofit investigative-news site in her state capital. But grants are tough to score and corporate donations have the potential to taint her organization’s objectivity, she told me. On top of that, the nature of investigative news calls for long-form and serial writing, not exactly page-view generators.

Terry has considered hosting meet-and-greet events to generate revenue, charging cover fees (or “suggested donations” in nonprofit parlance) for participants to nosh with influential people. Unfortunately, the costs to organize, advertise and cater such events take a serious bite of whatever slim profit is possible, she worried.

My suggestion: Turn these events into a double-whammy volume business.

First, the volume part. Instead of holding cozy meet-and-greets in restaurants and charging higher fees to cover food costs, it might benefit Terry’s organization to host panel discussions in large spaces. A college or private company might be willing to donate use of a lecture hall or conference room, and a local caterer can donate light refreshments (though food always makes post-event cleanup a pain). On top of that, politicos and corporate spokespeople are usually willing to spout their agendas for free when given the opportunity to serve as panelists.

Such a setup allows Terry to suggest small, palatable donations at the door from a larger audience. It also reduces her overhead: So far in this scenario, Terry’s organization has spent zero dollars on space, food and speakers, and has gained a per-capita cover charge. Sweet, huh?

Here’s the double whammy. Terry can record such panel events for later broadcast on her organization’s website, for download as a free podcast, or as audio or video content for paid syndication. Delaying a broadcast gives value to attending panel discussions in real time, but it also allows those not in attendance to benefit from the information presented.

Most of all, delayed broadcasts can drive page views (read: advertising dollars) to a site, especially if a discussion topic or panelist sparks heightened interest between the live event and the recorded show. That kind of action also increases a program’s syndication value.

One event, two sources of revenue. BAM! BAM! A double whammy.

For-profit news organizations can duplicate this, though it might be harder to find donated space and food. Still, I predict a private college would be glad to host an event in exchange for sponsor status and the appearance of an esteemed professor on the panel.

I hope Terry and her organization can reap some revenue from producing these or similar events, as they would benefit the host and audience members alike. For more information on keeping investigative journalism afloat, check out American University’s iLab. Keep running the good race, Terry!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Stacie Joy for CTTC.

That’s when his eyes glazed over. “What’s Twitter?” he asked.

I tried my best to explain it: 140-character squirts of information broadcast to followers, who then might rebroadcast (or retweet) that information to their followers, and so on. My advertiser didn’t see its value; admittedly, I didn’t do a good job illustrating it to him. It just seemed like a lot of work that he didn’t really need.

He was right. Digital marketing can be a full-time job, or at least a labor-intensive one for a small, neighborhood business. Mom and Pop Shopkeeper can’t spare their first-born child to tweet daily specials or post notes on a Facebook wall. That kid needs to be at the register or on a bicycle making deliveries.

The Tribune Company stepped into this tough sell earlier this week and Gannett started in late May. But they’re onto something: Digital-marketing services are certainly a revenue stream that allows online hyperlocalists to leverage social-networking skills they already have (or at least should have).

Making this work means first educating small business owners on the value of Facebook and Twitter (I’ll toss in Foursquare while I’m at it). That can be done one-on-one during a sales call, or in a free presentation to the chamber of commerce or other local business groups. The goal is to introduce business owners to the concepts of social networking and not to instruct them on exactly how to use it. They won’t buy the cow if they can get the milk for free.

Next, it might mean scaling a digital-marketing campaign to fit a business’s needs and budget. A restaurant might have plenty of information to post on its Twitter and Facebook feeds, and such a business can use (and afford) the help of an online hyperlocalist to set up those accounts or create content.

Conversely, a corner convenience store might not have much to say, but one inexpensive “sponsored” tweet on a hyperlocalist’s Twitter feed can extend its services to an online audience.

I’ve had some success offering digital-marketing services to small businesses: I ghost-tweeted text and photos for a local crafts fair using that business’s Twitter account, and transmitted teaser tweets through my news site’s feed. I also convinced the restaurateur mentioned above to purchase tweet time on my feed, though as part of a larger display-ad package.

In the interest of transparency, each tweet appearing on my feed was labeled “sponsored.” Likewise, any mention of the crafts fair or that restaurant in the website’s content included some mention of them as sponsors or advertisers.

Digital marketing is a professional service and revenue stream that online hyperlocalists should consider, especially since Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are well adapted to mobile devices. It’s an easy way to break into mobile monetization with existing technology.

Photos courtesy of Flickr user Jeremy Keith and Tommaso Sorchiotti.

Let’s say a neighborhood restaurant offers a prix fixe meal for $10 (obviously not a restaurant in New York City). Two hypothetical dollars go towards the actual cost of ingredients and food preparation, while the remaining $8 is profit.

But what if that restaurant wants to draw more customers on a slow night during the week, or perhaps over a holiday weekend? It can partner with a hyperlocal news outlet, which will promote a discounted price and broker its sale to a limited number of readers (or viewers or listeners). For that, the hyperlocalist earns a modest fee.

There are three important thing to remember: The number of discounted meals must be limited; the discount should be valid only for a limited time or on a specific date; and customers must pay for the discounted meals in advance. Promoting the discount can happen through the usual channels (online, in print or on air), or through an emailing list or Twitter feed. The hyperlocal news outlet also can use an e-commerce service such as PayPal to facilitate sales.

In this example, the hyperlocalist must broker four times the number of discounted transactions to match the restaurant’s net profit at the regular retail price. But the beauty of this revenue model is that there is very little work involved. That means a nice piece of change for the hyperlocalist with only a smidgeon of effort.

For the Twin Cities (Minn) Daily Planet, revenues from deal brokering actually surpassed traditional advertising sales in the first two weeks of its “Deal of the Day” program, the Knight Citizen News Network reported last week. My former news site also had success with a brokering program, though the cost of printing coupons eventually erased most of the profit. (Unfortunately, my program launched before Facebook and Twitter gained mainstream momentum, before the iPhone was born, back in the Stone Age.)

The numbers above are for illustrative purposes only. In fact, the Nieman Journalism Lab and Knight Citizen News Network articles recommend bigger paydays for deal brokers, and brokering services can be sold to retail businesses other than restaurants. Now go make money!

Recently I spoke with one hyperlocalist whom I’ll call Loretta for privacy’s sake. Loretta operates a popular hyperlocal website and was invited to join a regional network that shares advertising revenue with its members while collecting a cut for itself. Currently, the network doesn’t have an umbrella site for aggregating its members’ content or directing readers to its members’ respective websites.

Despite that, there are definite advantages to Loretta’s participation in the network. First, this particular network carries name recognition, though it’s still too fresh out of the box to call it a brand. (Details of its business practices couldn’t be confirmed, so it shall remain nameless in this post.) Next, it stretches across an entire region, which should help reel in large advertisers and their large ad budgets. Last, there’s the notion that all boats will rise with the revenue tide, even those that aren’t as seaworthy as the rest of the fleet.

There’s only one thing about this arrangement that makes me leery. Revenue sharing assumes revenue, and when talking about advertising, that usually means page views. This network is so brand-spanking new that it doesn’t yet have an audience of its own and is relying on Loretta’s site and others to drive traffic. In other words, it can’t deliver page views to Loretta’s site. Instead, Loretta’s site will deliver page views to the network, which will then take its cut of the ad revenue.

The way I see it, if Loretta and other hyperlocalists are doing all the work to drive traffic, then they should reap most of the revenue. The network still deserves a cut for using its name and relative size to leverage ad sales, but the fact is, those ad sales won’t happen without the hyperlocalists’ hard-earned page views.

I don’t know the numbers of Loretta’s revenue-sharing arrangement, but I hope she gets her fair share of the deal. Best of luck, Loretta!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user enggul.

But one form of syndication I’d never considered is that of photographic content, and not just shots related to news events. Last week, an art director for a regional magazine requested permission to reprint a photo I’d taken for my former hyperlocal news site. The photo (right) was taken at a fashion show last year, and as it turned out, the magazine was publishing a small blurb about the show’s return to the area.

The best part: The art director offered to pay me a nice fee to reuse my previously published photo.

Moreover, I made myself available to this art director as a stock photography supplier. I’ve got a hard drive loaded with copyrighted pics of street scenes, food from local restaurants, seasonal and recurring events, and of course topical news items that this magazine and other publications might be interested in using. Why not capitalize on existing works.

Admittedly, selling republishing rights to regional magazines might not bring in big bucks immediately, but the magazine industry seems to be recovering from the recession. Also, advertising agencies might be interested in using a hyperlocalist’s photos and video to meet their clients’ needs. And other local businesses might make use of such content for self-produced print, broadcast and online promotional material.

The easiest way to publicize the availability of stock photography is to slap photos on the web, either on Flickr, a hyperlocal news site, a photo blog or some other online venue. The photos (or at least the web pages on which they’re posted) should have search engine-optimized titles that point directly to where and when the pics were taken. And all content should be labeled with a copyright statement and contact information.

I don’t expect to retire from my non-existent day job with income from reuse licenses, but it’s certainly an efficient revenue stream that hyperlocalists should consider.

In Dutchess County, NY, small-scale organic dairy farmers have formed a nonprofit cooperative that allows them to bypass the middle man and market their goods directly to retailers in New York City. So far, the arrangement has allowed eight family-owned farms to earn more than the going rate while staying competitive with industrial farms, The New York Times reported earlier this month.

That got me thinking: If a hard-hit industry like family farming can make money through a cooperative, then why can’t hyperlocal news outlets do the same?

For example, several extremely good hyperlocal sites dot the Washington, DC region. As independent operations, they would probably do alright in terms of advertising sales, assuming they have the sales staff and the interest to follow that revenue stream. (Some of them do not host ads. Whether that’s by choice is not known.)

But if these organizations were to form a collective advertising venue, they could probably draw large sponsors — regional chains come to mind — and charge higher ad rates for the wider distribution. The effort required to sign those sponsors can be shared, with a finder’s fee going to whomever seals the deal and a standardized rate for those who host the ad.

At the same time, the individual outlets can avail themselves to neighborhood mom-and-pop shops and charge a lower rate for hyperlocal distribution. In this case, there would be no profit sharing among members of the cooperative.

Of course, advertising networks catering to hyperlocal outlets are already out there. At least three of them contacted me yesterday after CUNY J-school’s Jeff Jarvis retweeted a link to this blog. I don’t know how these networks operate, though I’m sure they’d be happy to explain. But if hyperlocalists can cut out the middle man, then why not snip away.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user scpgt.