Who can make Hyper-Local News work?

I have looked at many hyper-local news networks over the past few years and many of them had some of the same qualities and features.....but none of them really succeeded in their plan to take over the online hyper-local news space.  A lot of them either went out of business, re-vamped their idea, or sold the site to another hyper-local network.  There are some like Patch.com which are still operating, but have such a high operational cost that they lose millions each month!  So far nobody has the right answer, and hopefully that changes in 2012.

If the answer isn't found in 2012 it won't be for a lack of trying!  So many people are trying to build the right network and there are so many existing companies re-vamping their business model that I predict an online local news overload in 2012.  But the question still remands on what is the right formula on creating a huge hyper-local news network that is profitably.   I won't clam to know the formula, but I can tell you a few problems or issues that will need to be answered to get it done:

1) Local Ad Revenue

Many hyper-local sites are basing most of their revenue off of the sales of local advertisements and a lot of them are expecting way too much money and going about it all wrong!  The first mistake I see on most of these sites is when they divide up the areas, they do not take into account what a normal sales area would cover.  They have the areas split up into "hyper-local" news areas and then when they try to obtain local advertisements they usually cover too small of an area and do not reach enough people to satisfy the local business owner.

Another huge mistake is they predict too much money out of the sale of local advertisements.  They don't take into account that when selling on such a local level that the ad prices go way down compared to a regional ad.  So they do not set up the right budget per town or area within the network causing them to lose money even though they might be making good progress. 

Some how the local ad revenue model has to be figured out and fast or none of these sites will be turning a profit anytime soon.

2) The Hyper-Local Network Staff

This is a huge issue with many of the hyper-local new sites and networks....who runs the sites, how do we pay them, and how do we find them!  It is really important to get the right people writing the stories and covering the local events, but how to you find them?  Also, once you have found the right type of people what is your model for paying them (keeping in mind how much you can have as overhead cost compared to what you hope to make out of each site)?  These are really important questions because you can keep your cost down, but you might not find the right people.  But then if you find the right people and they cost too much your site loses money no matter how good the content.

Then comes the question of once you have your writers, local editors, site editors, etc. who will sell the local advertising or national advertising?  Some have tried to have the local editor sell the advertising or even  be in charge of getting leads and neither have worked out.  Some have tried have a sales team based in other cites to call into the local communities to obtain advertising and they hasn't worked either.

Once you figure out what the correct staff is and the correct cost of the staff in comparison to the income of a site you will finally have the winning combination.


I think that once those two main issues are truly solved then someone is going to have a real shot at creating a hyper-local news network that will work and be profitability.  Until this happens you will see many hyper local news sites appear and disappear overtime along with many underwhelming sites.  I know OurTown is working in a new "formula" this year to try and figure out these issues, but it is going to be interesting to see who wins this race!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris 

Year End - OurTown.com

We only have a few more days until the new year and I wanted to wrap up this year with a look back at OurTown over the course of 2011 and our focus on the future!

This year was a rapid year of change for OurTown.com!  We have added many features, many local editors, expanded our reach (to the UK!), had many site changes and so on.  I just want to highlight the major changes, additions, and departures.

New Features:

Over the course of the year we added and changed many features to keep our local editors with the best possible features to help them produce great content.  Below is a short highlight list of some of these changes:

- New "upload" feature which allows our local editors to upload PDF's, PowerPoint's, and any other type of document that would not be considered a news article.

- New "Comment Counter" to help show our local editors and viewers which stories were popular and held a great conversation.

- New "Manage Islands" feature that allowed our local editors to curate their pages faster and easier.

- We changed our video feature from a "YouTube Insert" option to a "in-house" build full video feature that allows our local editors (and viewers who submit video) to upload many different types of video and to properly SEO tag every individual video.

- New "Social Media Bar" which allows our users and local editors to connect their stories and content to many different social media sites including - Facebook / Twitter / and Google+.

- Also, we added a new "Language Converter" which allowed our users to select from many different languages across the world to view our site with!

Site Changes:

Also, during the course of this year we made some major changes to the structure of OurTown and how it operated.  Below is a short highlight list of these changes:

- OurTown expanded its reach and area listings to the United Kingdom!  We have sites now in Seaford, Newhaven, Peacehaven, and Lewes within East Sussex. We plan on continuing to put our main focus on the expansion of sites within the United States, but will also concentrate on building our presence in the United Kingdom!

- OurTown also went back to its business plan of an 80/20 split of the local ads between the local editors and OurTown Media.  We had talked about many different plans that would help build a true revenue stream (to help sustain a hyper local network, unlike Patch.com), and we felt that this split would be the easiest and most fair to everyone involved.

- Also, at the end of 2010 we were building a completely new site for OurTown, which took a lot more time than expected and ran into a lot of "road blocks".  We still plan on putting out a new design in the new year and also to continuous work on feature and site changes that will benefit OurTown, the local editors, and the viewers!


People Changes:

I also just wanted to briefly touch on the fact that we have added many new local editors, but also had some departures do to many reasons.  Our goal during 2011 was to figure out the true definition of the person who can run their own OurTown site.  We focused on keeping our good local editors who built and maintained their sites within our guidelines and who also shared the same goals.  As for the rest we slowly deactivated their sites and returned to recruitment to add local editors who would help the site! 

The Future:

OurTown.com has come a long way since we put the site live at the end of 2007 and we have learned many things throughout our journey.  This coming year will be no different!  We have much to do and to learn and plan on introducing new changes to the site within the first couple of months in 2012.  Are only hope is that you join us through our adventure in 2012 and we believe that it is going to be a great year!

We hope everyone had a good Holiday and hope that everyone has a great New Year!

Thank you!


From Everyone at OurTown.com !

Right Person for the Job !

Listeners of the World,

Online news, hyper - local news, social news.....what do you think of when you hear these words?  Most people will say - websites, breaking news, news at your finger tips, and so on, but nobody ever thinks about the person behind the site!  Now I am not talking about the big sites like CNN, but the smaller truly hyper local sites that bring the ground breaking community news to their sites.

These are the people that have to be more than just a journalist, they have to be a small newsroom in one or two people!  They write the stories, take the photos, shoot the video, curate the sites, respond to the comments, and so on.  These are people that work hard and will never stop because of how important it is to them.  Now many may ask what type of person would be able to do such an (at times) overwhelming job, and that is the answer that a lot of larger news networks are trying to figure out as well.

I have talked with many experts, editors, journalist, community members, and businessmen across the nation and they all seem to have different opinions on what qualifications make the perfect candidate for the job.  Here at OurTown we have seen over 1,000 different applications from people with many different backgrounds and experience and are still working on the description of the perfect candidate.  We feel that in the end there will not be one perfect description, but a base of qualifications to work off of to find people who can and will get the job done.

We have found that just looking at journalist and editors is the wrong way to go when you are trying to find the right people to run their own online news site.....you must think outside of this box.  You need to think of a person who can handle many different aspects of creating and maintaining the site, along with managing their time, and promotion skills.  Now these are not the only skills needed, but they are a few that get overlooked when someone is trying to find that "right" person to run their own news site.

Everyday we working on finding this mysterious person who can do the job right, sometimes we find them and sometimes we don't.  But, we believe that enough of these people exists and we will always keep trying to define and fine them!

Your OurTown Hero,

Chris