Tag Archives: Cory Bergman

Lost Remote: ‘Hyperlocal’ is not everything local

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A blog post that examines the buzzword ‘hyperlocal’. Lost Remote’s Cory Bergman argues that its use should be restricted to describe coverage more local than ‘local’. The Fast Company’s headline refererring to the ‘$100 billion potential of hyperlocal news’ particularly irks him.

“If you cover a city or a town, you’re a local site. Hyperlocal is a subset of local, not the catch-all buzzword for all of it (which explains the $100 billion number.) And slapping a garage sale map on a city news site does not make it hyperlocal.”

Full post at this link…

Blog post = one line (13 words) gets 5 comments

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I have my suspicions that the love of commenting on blogs is more ardently felt on the US side of the Atlantic than here in the UK.

I’m offering this little example up as evidence. A one line – 13 words – post on Lostremote that has so far led to five comments.

It’s not extraordinary, I happily admit that. But it is interesting that the few words: CNN’s Jeffery Toobin did a live shot from a Maui hotel via Skype have generated such interest.

I’m sure it’s probably not even the best example of brevity generating a response (if anyone can offer links to sharper examples, I’d be extremely grateful) what is interesting though is whether more of a story can be built from the comments to the one line post.

Cory Bergman, who posted the one line, seems to hope so. The fifth comment is from him in response to the other four asking for more information.

For disaster reporting – change your site template and turn on social media mode

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The wildfires that are raging through California and have caused half-a-million people to be ordered from their homes have encouraged news providers to ditch their normal website formats and go into wholly innovative crisis-reporting mode.

Having a design format for breaking news that’s significantly different from the usual run of breaking news helps draw attention to the scale and importance of the story.

Cluttered websites like 10news.com and KNBC.com – Cory Bergman at Lost Remote points out – have failed to get over the magnitude of the events.

Adopting a unique layout for the home page – Corry adds – can also allow more content to surface:

“If you build a breaking news layout ahead of time, it’s not that much work to execute it when the story breaks. Just flick the switch. TV sites should own breaking news, and a flexible, content-driven design plays a big part.”

It’s something BBC News also does for big stories. It abandons the usual format of running a lead and to sub-lead stories, replacing them with a single large image to direct attention to a specific story.

Sites like the LA Times and MSNBC have adopted a similar approach for the fires. The Times has a photo gallery on its front page, along with links to its interactive maps, evacuation info and quick stats on the carnage the fires are causing.

Homepage design aside, devices for reporting the breaking news On The Fly have caused some news providers to ditch the usual tools and wing it with social media.

As we posted yesterday, radio station KPBS is using Twitter to do ‘Real-Time Updates’ on its website and to direct readers to local authority announcements, its Google Map of the fires, traffic updates and addresses for evacuation centres.

News 8, a CBS affiliate in San Diego, has even (thanks to Martin Stabe @ the Press Gazette for the point) taken down its normal website and replaced it with a rolling news blog, with links to YouTube videos and necessary/emergency information.

One of those uploaded videos is from journalist Larry Himmel, who reports on his own house being destroyed:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKGF2bbxQ6E]