Thank you for this. I lead a regional NPR member station collaboration. Data shows the digital stories we produce that are local or even state-focused (as opposed to regional) have higher engagement online and via social media. As public media organizations, collectively, seek to attract more members, the economics of hyperlocal bear understanding and embracing.
Interestingly, I was a regional editor for Patch (AOL's hyperlocal initiative) back in the day, circa 2010-2012. The original vision for Patch was local journalists covering their communities and local sales teams bringing in the revenue. But Patch found it hard to gain traction with advertisers and readers, even when there were no competing hyperlocal news offerings. Patch survives, sort of. But it's far from the hyperlocal dream that attracted so many journalists.
This is an excellent, fascinating piece. Drop me a note sometime at jzremski@umd.edu. I think you'd be an excellent panelist on a webinar program I am putting together on the business of journalism.
I do think there could be ways for regional publishers to work. But it has to be anchored/aligned with how the community’s actually identify at a hyperlocal level.
Justin – I think the "1,000 True Fans" link is spot-on.
Sebastopol shows that Kelly's math can apply to something broader than podcasters or indie creators. Civic infrastructure can scale that way too. When 1,400 people in a town of 7,500 are willing to pay $60/year, they're not just "subscribing." They're supporting a civic utility. That's product-market fit in its purest form.
Thinking about what you said regarding how regional publishers will need to hyperlocally align made me think of the inverse. Perhaps the future "metro" paper doesn't have one huge, monolithic brand. It looks more like a network of unique hyperlocal brands operating out of the same back-end. You can scale both the business and technology sides of the house. What you can't scale is locality.
Would love to see a funder brave enough to throw some support behind an experiment to try this on a bigger scale.
Thank you for this. I lead a regional NPR member station collaboration. Data shows the digital stories we produce that are local or even state-focused (as opposed to regional) have higher engagement online and via social media. As public media organizations, collectively, seek to attract more members, the economics of hyperlocal bear understanding and embracing.
Interestingly, I was a regional editor for Patch (AOL's hyperlocal initiative) back in the day, circa 2010-2012. The original vision for Patch was local journalists covering their communities and local sales teams bringing in the revenue. But Patch found it hard to gain traction with advertisers and readers, even when there were no competing hyperlocal news offerings. Patch survives, sort of. But it's far from the hyperlocal dream that attracted so many journalists.
This is an excellent, fascinating piece. Drop me a note sometime at jzremski@umd.edu. I think you'd be an excellent panelist on a webinar program I am putting together on the business of journalism.
Thank you for moving the conversation forward and following the numbers Yoni.
I found myself thinking of Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true fans a lot as we did that analysis.
https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
I do think there could be ways for regional publishers to work. But it has to be anchored/aligned with how the community’s actually identify at a hyperlocal level.
Justin – I think the "1,000 True Fans" link is spot-on.
Sebastopol shows that Kelly's math can apply to something broader than podcasters or indie creators. Civic infrastructure can scale that way too. When 1,400 people in a town of 7,500 are willing to pay $60/year, they're not just "subscribing." They're supporting a civic utility. That's product-market fit in its purest form.
Thinking about what you said regarding how regional publishers will need to hyperlocally align made me think of the inverse. Perhaps the future "metro" paper doesn't have one huge, monolithic brand. It looks more like a network of unique hyperlocal brands operating out of the same back-end. You can scale both the business and technology sides of the house. What you can't scale is locality.
Would love to see a funder brave enough to throw some support behind an experiment to try this on a bigger scale.
This is a very thought-provoking piece. Thanks, Yoni.