Last week saw TAL10, the Talk About Local unconference take place in Leeds. The event, at Old Broadcasting House in Leeds, was attended by many hyperlocal site owners but in contrast to TAL09 it also attracted more journalists included those from mainstream media such as Trinity Mirror and Newsquest.
This isn’t surprising, as hyperlocal sites are increasingly showing how mature they are, it is becoming more and more apparent that main stream media organisations are interested in how the two can work together. The unconference provided us with a glimpse about how such collaboration might work out.
Kick starting the morning session, David Higgerson of Trinity Mirror and Philip John of The Lichfield Blog hosted a session in a packed room discussing how MSM and hyperlocal might work together. David and Phil began by offering up ideas to each other of what each side could offer. The room soon came alive with suggestions and discussion. Among the ideas put forward were;
- Content sharing
- MSM have huge banks of photos that hyperlocals could take advantage of
- MSM could use hyperlocal content for print publications
- Hyperlocals are well placed to provide very fast video and audio content of breaking news
- We discussed how attribution would work and how each party would be appropriately rewarded
- Syndication
- MSM are able to syndicate content both on their own online properties but also nationally, selling on hyperlocal content and benefiting each other in doing so
- Court cases
- Hyperlocals often find that the laws around contempt of court (or just time pressures) prevent them from reporting relevant court cases that MSM may already be covering
- Links
- On a simple level, links can be created either on a general level or to related articles
- Publicity for the community
- With a larger network, MSM can help to promote communities by generating awareness of hyperlocals
- Surveys and petitions
- MSM run these all the time and could have hyperlocals run them too, rewarding them with early access to results and agreements on when to publish resulting articles
- Advertising and directories
- This is one area where hyperlocals could generate revenue, but don’t have the resources so pooling the resources of local media will help hyperlocals generate some revenue whilst improving the offering that MSM can offer local businesses. Of course, hyperlocals will likely drive new businesses to advertise on the network too.
- Journalistic expertise/tech knowledge
- Often hyperlocals are started by folks with little journalistic knowledge, presenting an opportunity for MSM to provide guidance that will help hyperlocals in the regard
- Similarly, many journalists lack the technical knowledge that some hyperlocals take for granted and so an exchange of skill sets is possible
Two really important points came from this session though;
- Case by base: different deals will suit different people and so collaboration will have to be sought on a case-by-case basis.
- Talk to each other: the room seemed in agreement that hyperlocal and MSM just need to speak to each other! Simple.
In a bold move the session was a bit analogue; using paper to write down the ideas and you can see pictures of the two sheets of paper below;
Did we cover everything? Have you already started working with hyperlocal/mainstream media?
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