Hyper-Local Media Update:Emerging activity and evidence June 11 - August 11

A personal take on things of note in the past couple of months

Damian Radcliffe, 5th September 2011

Comments and feedback welcome: damian.radcliffe@ofcom.org.uk

damian.radcliffe@gmail.com @mrdamian76

BackgroundThis is an update to a number of previous packs looking at the UK and US hyper-local scene:http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian/intro-to-hyperlocal-full-12-inch-version http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian/hyper-local-update-dec10-and-jan11 http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian/hyperlocal-update-feb-11-and-march-11 http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian/hyper-local-update-april-11-and-may-11 http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian/hyper-local-definitions-and-trends-july-2011-v2

These slides are by no means intended to be comprehensive, but cover some of the key hyper-local developments I’ve spotted in the last couple of months, and which I wanted to share.

Everything here is in the public domain, but these slides endeavour to bring examples and stories together; as well as possible include some things you may have missed.

All content is referenced so you can go and read original articles for yourself if you want.

As ever, I’m sharing this to get feedback and suggestions – so do send them! Any omissions, errors or mistakes are mine, and mine alone.

Thanks for reading!

Ten other useful things from the UK

1. Local TV

• Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has published a new framework setting out proposals to help create a new generation of local TV services across the UK.

• The framework outlines the steps the Government intends to take by using available secondary order making powers - and the funding of up to £40 million secured through the licence fee settlement with the BBC - to support local TV services.

• The proposals include three statutory instruments: the first, to reserve sufficient local, low-cost spectrum for carrying the local TV services; the second to create a proportionate and targeted licensing regime for the spectrum and local TV service operators; and the third, to secure appropriate prominence for the licensed local services in television electronic programme guides.

• DCMS also announced it hopes to secure "appropriate prominence" for the services on terrestrial, cable and satellite EPGs, and said £25m in infrastructure costs would be made available from the licence fee, with a further £5m spent on content for the first three years the services operate.

• The framework does not include the creation of a single national ‘spine’, but businesses may come together into a network if that makes commercial sense.

DCMS said: “It will be for the bidders of the licences to develop their commercial propositions and make the case to Ofcom through the award process.”

• DCMS published details of the areas identified by Ofcom as suitable for local TV (see map) featuring 65 possible locations which could host planned local TV services from 2014.

• They are inviting businesses and community groups to tender bids to run the stations, as well as bids to manage the new multiplex, which will be called MuxCo.

Potential areas

Quotes from the SoS

“These new, local TV services will be a fundamental change in how people get information about their own communities, and how they hold their representatives to account...

The first licences will be open to bidders in just a few months. But before then, we need to decide which areas are best placed to pioneer the new service. In deciding the order in which licences should be made available, we need to judge the level of interest from potential broadcasters and audiences,

and take the views of companies interested in bidding for the single multiplex licence.”

----------------------------------“Local media is a vital part of local democracy and plays an important role in holding institutions to account. Audiences want more local content that’s directly relevant to what’s going on in their own

communities, which is why it’s one of my priorities to address the almost total lack of local TV in the UK.

“I firmly believe that creating the right conditions for viable local TV services up and down the UK will bring about a significant change in the media market. After careful consideration of the responses to the local media action plan, I am confident that targeted action from the Government and industry can put local TV on a strong and sustainable footing. There is great scope to contribute to growth in our creative

industries, develop local journalism and help bring communities together around a shared voice.”

http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8314.aspx http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8380.aspx

Selected media coverage

• Local TV stations 'expensive' to set up - Former chief executive of Channel 5 David Elstein explains why Mr Hunt is "pushing a rock uphill". http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9559000/9559497.stm (audio)

• Local TV lessons from the United States - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14077754 (video)

• Hunt: 'Real hunger' for local TV http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9568000/9568214.stm (audio)

• Local TV news could be sponsored - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14590605

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/jeremy-hunt-drops-plan-new-national-tv-network

• http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/regulation/hunt-unveils-new-local-tv-plans/5029949.article

• http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=47667&c=1

• http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/local-tv-locations-revealed/5030670.article

2. More TV related updatesSTV is to widen the reach of its news app to users of smartphones powered by Google's Android system following a successful roll-out on the Apple iPhone.

STV’s Alistair Brown commented : "This is the first dedicated news app from Scotland to be created for the Android market.“

Source: http://bit.ly/oSxdLM

STV has launched a new venture offering discount deals to registered users in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The Daily Deals service sees the broadcaster's classified team work with local businesses to source offers which are sent to readers via email alerts. The service is expected to be rolled out in other cities.

Source: http://bit.ly/oIOsPw

The Community Channel has launched London 360 a fortnightly television magazine show featuring news and reviews, as well as stories from London's communities, campaigns and “secret corners.”

The first episode featured interviews with George Michael, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Lord Coe and Sir Steve Redgrave , as well as reports from the anti-rape march Slutwalks, and highlights from the annual street festival StreetFest.

See: http://bit.ly/jTyIZX

3. BBC confirms local commitment

In a letter to David Cameron, BBC Director General Mark Thompson confirmed local news services will not be axed as part of its Delivering Quality First initiative. “We have decided to approach the challenge of planning the BBC’s future in as open way as we can, listening to our audiences and involving as many people inside the BBC as possible in debating the opportunities, choices and challenges we face..….

….Your constituents are correct that there has been a suggestion from some of my colleagues that, in order to save money, we should withdraw those regional services

– based in Cambridge, Oxford and the Channel Islands – which serve the smallest populations.

“Like you however, I believe that these services are very valuable, particularly in the light of ITV’s retreat from regional broadcasting, and that to withdraw them would be a retrograde step. I do not intend to include this idea in the final package of proposals that I submit to the BBC Trust.”

Source: http://bit.ly/mKp0fJ

David Cameron talked to Whitney TV about the move here: http://bit.ly/l04XXv

And the BBC’s Torin Douglas was just one commentator to talk about it: http://bbc.in/r8qYHa

4. Coverage of the recent riots

Local newspapers in riot-hit areas of England reported record website traffic and strong newsstand sales :

• Trinity Mirror’s Birmingham Mail said online page views were up 300% on normal levels, with 100,000 people following the events on its live blog.

• Manchester Evening News attracted 493,348 page viewsup 60% on the daily average from the last six weeks, and 167,308 unique users, up 79%.

• The Wolverhampton Express and Star website saw 800,000 hits on Tuesday, with Wednesday's estimated at 1m.Sources: http://bit.ly/mZBaeT and http://bit.ly/pdYrnH

David Higgerson’s blog offered an excellent montage of Thursday’s regional newspaper front pages of which I’ve included a snapshot: http://bit.ly/qUQRoe

Hyper-local coverage

Online examples include:

• Before and after coverage of a day in Brixton, via Brixton Blog: http://brixtonblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/sunday-7-august/

• Harringay Online had 25 posts on the subject, including what happened and how to help locally affected families: http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=london+troubles

• Birmingham Riots 2011 – a Tumblr site set up by musician Casey Rain

• Sangat TV, a small Sikh television channel on Sky Channel 847 also covered what was happening in England’s second city.

Paul Bradshaw comments:

“Sangat TV’s website crashed due to high demand and they shifted to hosting their stream on Amazon’s servers. Meanwhile, some clips were filmed by viewers and posted on YouTube. At one point the camera crew gave a lift to police pursuing rioters, the reporter commentating that they were “Serving the community”. It’s an action that challenges traditional notions of journalistic impartiality.

Source: http://bit.ly/ns164h

Sample Analysis

There’s been lots of articles on the causes of the riots. Here’s links to just a few articles looking at how hyper-local and social media played a role on the night(s) and thereafter:

Social media can help riot-hit communities recoverIn all the furore over social media's inflammatory role in the riots, little has been said about how local networks can bring neighbourhoods together.

(Kevin Harris writing on the Guardian’s Joe Pubic Blog)

Reacting to a #riotOn Monday morning I was called up and interviewed by a wire service for my thoughts on the weekend’s riots in London. “What do you say to the idea that Twitter is a catalyst for all these riots?” he asked, and I explained as best I could how the very idea is bunkum.

(Adam Westbrook on his blog)

How bloggers and police countered riot rumours in Wolverhampton(Andrew Brightwell at public-i)

How a musician and a Sikh TV channel dominated coverage of the Birmingham riots(Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism blog)

5. For Tindle the future is local

• Sir Ray Tindle was reported in the Press Gazette as telling Tindle Newspapers staff he is “absolutely sure that the group will live through this downturn”, but warned its divisions would have to “grasp the nettle” and adopt different business models.

“It is your responsibility to see that it is strictly local, hyper local... ... success is based on names, faces and places - but strictly local names, faces and places.”

“Make it a really good paper and you’ll find people will pay for it. Forget going free.”

• He cited the group’s new paid-for weekly the Chingford Times as an example of successfully adopting a hyper-local strategy, arguing the model could offer: “a way out of this dreadful recession”.

Source: http://bit.ly/ojvQFc

6. New CEO and partnerships for Johnston

• Microsoft vice president, and former BBC director of new media and technology, Ashley Highfield will succeed John Fry as CEO of Johnston Press from November 1st.

• Johnston Press’ first-half pre-tax profits were down 47.4% on a year ago to £13.8m,

with operating profits down 25.7% to £32.6m. – Group revenues fell by 7.5% to £191.8m, while ad revenues dropped by 10%. – Circulation revenues fell by 1.8% and net debt was down by £16m since start of year to £370.7m.

• Johnston Press also announces digital partnerships with online property group Zoopla and vouchers company Nimble Commerce. The new online vouchers business is due to launch in the autumn.

• In March the group launched a business directory, Find It.

7. Courts rule against online copying

The Court of Appeal has ruled newspapers should be paid by news monitoring agencies that use their online content, upholding a previous ruling against news aggregator Meltwater that said users of the service would require a Newspaper Licensing Agency licence.

NLA managing director David Pugh said:

"The Court of Appeal has today unequivocally confirmed the ruling of the High Court that online newspapers are copyright protected. It has given a clear declaration that most (if not all) businesses subscribing to a media monitoring service that

contains content from online newspapers require a licence.”

Meltwater CEO Jorn Lyseggen responded:

"The ability to browse the internet without fear of infringing copyright is a fundamental internet principle. Society is not served by this ruling.”

Source: http://tgr.ph/q5dJXX See: http://bit.ly/qRnGKH for a barrister’s perspective.

And: http://bit.ly/kLYdwK for more background.

8. O2 moves further into location

• O2 has launched Priority Moments, a location-based vouchers and direct marketing service, after signing up 30 brand partners.

“This is not a tactical programme of one-off deals - it’s about building a long-term, nationwide service that benefits both our customers and our partners.

The combination of mobile, great offers and experiences by trusted companies with long-term partnerships creates what we believe is a special service.”

(Marketing and Consumer Director Sally Cowdry)Source: http://bit.ly/oZT0YT

• O2 managing director Sean Gregory said evidence supporting location-based marketing is “really beginning to mount” after a number of advertisers ran campaigns over the group’s network, adding:

“These figures show that it is not only effective at targeting the right consumers at the right time, but also extremely effective at

driving new revenues streams and huge ROI."

Source: http://bit.ly/iHQPPj

9. Postcode Gazette - Sheffield• Postcode Gazette is an ad-funded start-up, which has launched a pilot in Sheffield.

• MD Chris McCormack said that it aims to provide “hyperlocal news on a national scale” to mobile devices by recruiting thousands of publishers responsible for small areas.

“As a rough rule of thumb, we are thinking in terms of one local publisher for every 5,000 people. Rather than one person to cover a town, or a handful to cover a city, we're aiming for 50 or 100.

The challenge for us is making sure we have enough skilled people working with us.” Source: http://bit.ly/lF1aUt

10. Yell to invert print to digital ratio

The Yell Group announced their new strategy in July and with it “a detailed four year programme to transform the Group from being a leading supplier of print and online advertising for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to being the leader in the emerging local eMarketplace for consumers and SMEs.”

Steps to help them achieve this include:

– Revenue mix to change from 75% print and 25% digital to 25% print and 75% digital by 2015– Strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Znode and Bazaarvoice.

The strategic alliance with Microsoft, will ensure yell.com results receive priority in Bing and Yahoo! searches.

Yell Group has operations in the UK, US, Spain and some countries in Latin America.In the year ended 31 March 2011, Yell Group had 1.3 million SME advertisers.

Source: http://bit.ly/no87nl

Ten useful things from across the Pond

1. Major FCC report publishedThe Federal Communications Commission has published a major report on: “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age”.

The report argues that while digital technology has made “the news and information landscape...more vibrant than ever before,” in many communities “there are more outlets, but less local accountability reporting. Where there are gaps, less quality local reporting can lead to less government accountability…and greater corruption.”

Block by Block noted that: “The term “hyperlocal” is mentioned 63 times “ .

Whilst the Knight Foundation commented that “hyperlocal news sites like AOL’s Patch and MSNBC’s EveryBlock are trying to fill this void, but there are still gaps in smaller communities and the model may not be sustainable.” The policy recommendations in the report include targeting government ad money to local instead of national media, tax code reforms that would encourage donations to nonprofit news organizations, and changes to journalism school curriculum to include field training for students.

Read all 478 (!) pages here: http://bit.ly/koM8Ig

Sample Quotes“Hyperlocal information is better than ever. Technology has allowed citizens

to help create and share news on a very local level—by town, neighborhood, or even block. These sites mostly do not operate as profitable businesses, but they do not need to.

This is journalism as voluntarism—a thousand points of news.” (p.10)

“Perhaps no area has been more dramatically transformed than ‘hyperlocal’ —coverage on the neighborhood or block by block level.

Even in the fattest-and-happiest days of traditional media, they could not regularly provide news on such a granular level. Professional media have been joined by a wide range of local blogs, email lists,

websites and the proliferation of local groups on national websites like Facebook or Yahoo!” (p16)

“Hundreds of nonprofit websites have sprung up, and have made significant contributions in the realm of hyperlocal news, national investigative journalism, international coverage, and citizen journalism.” (p18)

“Future trends that might reduce the advertising advantages of community newspapers include the expansion of hyperlocal websites, the development of mobile advertising that targets phones based

on geography, the extension of websites such as Craigslist into smaller cities and towns, and the advancement of strategies by search engines to capture local advertisers.” (p42)

With thanks to the team at Block by Block

2: Google moves into Deals

• Google has bought daily deal aggregator The Dealmap for an undisclosed amount.

• The newly-acquired company, which was launched last May, said:

"Google provides the ideal platform to help us accelerate our growth and fulfil our mission. Joining Google will help us innovate in new and unexplored areas of commerce."

• Dealmap has more than 2m users, with its app downloaded to iPhone and Android phones more than 1m times.

Sources:

http://reut.rs/rcHRvs

and http://bit.ly/qQlNZp.

And introduces a news “check-in”

• The U.S. Edition of Google News now lets users earn badges from reading about their favourite news topics.

• Users can attain Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Ultimate badges.

• Badges are private by default but can be made public to share interests with others.

• The Telegraph reported that there was no UK launch date for the service.

Source: http://bit.ly/nvheo3

3: Whilst Facebook checks out…

Facebook said it is planning to drop its Deals daily offers business after a four-month test period, but added in a statement:

“We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We’ve learnt a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.”

Source: http://on.ft.com/oW3uys

Facebook Deals which launched in Europe earlier this year had been live in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco.

At the time of launch, Director of Local, Emily White commented:

“We're building a product that is social from the ground up. All of these deals are things you want to

do with friends, so no teeth whitening, but yes to river rafting.”

Source: http://reut.rs/gMmpvl

http://wwwlhttp://www11845http://wwwlhttp://www

4. AOL and

“Patch Deals” is the name of a new ‘deals’ partnership with American Express.Source: http://rww.to/jhsZC1

ComScore data showed the Patch network of 800 hyper-local news sites attracted 6.9m unique users in April, more than doubled year-on-year, and up by 2m in March after integration with the Huffington Post.

Source: http://onforb.es/iTQQyU

Business Insider reports that the Huffington Post's four local sites (covering New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago, which may not be everyone’s definition of local) have more traffic than Patch's 850. However it notes that “Patches are located in big markets too …. They are also only staffed by a handful of people, versus the 850 or so running Patch sites.”

Source: http://read.bi/r7U7Zw

AOL has launched iPad newsreading app Editions, offering a personalised feed of stories, which are honed to users’ tastes over time, in a magazine format alongside data from Facebook and Twitter.

Source: http://on.mash.to/oCHgBu

5. Foursquare

Dennis Crowley, CEO of location-based social network Foursquare, said he anticipates the bulk of the group’s revenues will be generated by selling tracking technology to retailers, allowing them to monitor consumers’ movements, rather than advertising. Source: http://bloom.bg/p8HwnP

Location-based social network Foursquare has announced what the WSJ called its “most significant attempt yet to build a revenue stream”, agreeing re-marketing pacts with coupons websites including LivingSocial and Gilt Groupe.

CEO Dennis Crowley said: “We are trying to see if our targeting works and how users will react.

The deals haven't been heavily targeted with some of these providers."

Source: http://on.wsj.com/pOwect

In August the location-based social network announced it is starting to pull major events into its databases to enable users to check-in not just to venues, but also to specific events occurring at those venues.

Source: http://blog.foursquare.com/2011/08/18/foursquare_events/

6. Groupon• Groupon posted second-quarter net losses of $102.7m. • Revenues rose 900% from $87.3m to $878m,• Total subscribers were up from 83.1m to 115.7m.

Source: http://on.ft.com/nk8VTN

• Groupon, also agreed to no longer report Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income, following criticism that the measure, which excludes marketing costs, was not offering a true picture of profitability.

• As a result the company also revised its IPO prospectus, so that Groupon now reports 2010 losses as $181m, as opposed to $60.6m using ACSOI. Source: http://reut.rs/nGNPQh

• Location based social network Loopt has announced a partnershipwith Groupon in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.

Groupon Now!™ means Loopt users can now receive alerts when there’s a live deal nearby.

Source: http://bit.ly/noO92U

7. Record Amount of Local News in 2010The latest RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association)/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that 2010 marked a turnaround year for US local TV news. Key points:

* Overall, there are now 745 TV stations originating local news, running that news onthose stations and another 223 stations for a total of 968 stations airing local news.

* Total local television news employment is now 26,522, an increase of 2.9%.

* The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) reports that newspaper employment rose by 100 in2010 (up 2/100 of a percent) to 41,600. That's down from 55,100 in 2007.

* Stations added 750 jobs last year, recovering all the losses of 2009 (400 jobs lost) and making a dent in the 1,200 jobs lost in 2008.

The average local station produced a record 5.3 hours of news a day in 2010, up 18 minutes from 2009. The network affiliate average is even higher, recording 5.6 hours of news daily.

Sources: http://bit.ly/pZXkQI , http://bit.ly/olSKPV and http://bit.ly/reBqF8

8. Knight and FCC partner upThe Knight Foundation and the FCC are running a $100,000 challenge to develop an app that “delivers personalized, actionable information to people that are least likely to be online.”

Using hyper-local government and other public data the app is charged with providing easy access to relevant content for Americans “regardless of geography, race, economic status, disability, residence on Tribal land, or degree of digital or English literacy”.

Source: http://appsforcommunities.challenge.gov/

The goals of the Challenge are to:

1. Make local public information more personalized, usable, and accessible for all Americans;

2. Promote broadband adoption, particularly among Americans who are less likely to be regular Internet users (including low-income, rural, seniors, people with disabilities and the low digital/English literacy communities); and

3. Create better links between Americans and services provided by local, state, Tribal, and federal governments.

9. Hyper-local combining UCG and photos

Tackable offers an interesting mix of hyperlocal news, user-generated content, and social gaming. Neiman has a good article explaining how it all works:http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/02/tackable-aims-to-become-the-social-network-for-user-generated-news/

http://wwwlhttp://www11845

10. Ten lessons from InJersey.comTed Mann offers a “Hyperlocal Post-Mortem: Lessons Learned From InJersey” a two year experiment which “grew to 17 town blogs, 2,259 members, and 90 community contributors.” Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/lxEIrr

His ten lessons were:

1. Build Cheaply2. Recruit Via Twitter3. Partner with Everyone4. Local Advertisers Won’t Self Serve5. Maps are eye candy. No more, no less6. Aggregation and syndication are a smoke screen7. Display advertising isn’t enough8. Coffee shops are a natural hyperlocal nexus9. Host the conversation on Facebook10. Live in the town

With thanks to Ted Mann (@turkeymonkey) who’s also been very supportive of these updates.

What have I missed? Is this useful?

I can’t cover everything, but…. Feedback, suggestions and omissions welcome.

Like the Murphy’s, I’m not bitter.

Contact me: damian.radcliffe@gmail.com (home)

damian.radcliffe@ofcom.org.uk (work) Twitter: @mrdamian76