Interesting blog post from Joseph Stashko, co-editor of local news site Blog Preston, where he highlights what he thinks are the biggest issues surrounding ‘hyperlocal’ news networks.
One of his points is the relationship between regional press and local sites.
Not all bloggers are reactionary, unsubstantiated wannabe journalists, and not all regional media journalists view the internet as an evil contraption. We need to get beyond this immature view that still persists.
Rather than two very separate platforms, he would like to see greater integration between the two, a ‘best-of-both-worlds’ situation.
What I’d like to see is some kind of co-operation between traditional and online media. This has been done in some places, but not enough, and not to a standard where both parties equally benefit. Too often, articles are written deriding ‘the other side’, making snide cheap shots and I don’t think anyone can afford to be making enemies right now. How about providing a space on regional newspaper websites for these new journalists to cover their small beat? Or even integrate into the print edition, maybe with a postcode specific opinion article once a week.
NWS News is a hyperlocal and we’re about to provide editorial content for a weekly regional paper – once we’ve agreed on a few things (including payment models). NWS News never lifts stories from the likes of the Sheffield Star or Sheffield Telegraph: We find our own items and this is on the basis that news presented locally in other media doesn’t need re-hashing (though the occasional feature may come out of news heard elsewhere!). However, it’s easy to understand the protectionism/paranoia of traditional journos whose jobs are disappearing daily – but the sooner the better when they accept the inevitable and start cooperating with other media in order to reach increasingly distracted audiences.
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