Introduction to hyper local media: full 12 inch version

An Introduction to Hyper-Local Media:Emerging Thoughts & Evidence
Damian Radcliffe
November 2010

Or how to whizz through140 slides in 40 minutes
Don’t worry, most of them are illustrative.
And all the research here is available to share, disseminate and dissect afterwards.

Running Order
Why this matters to Ofcom
- purposes and duties
- evidence
Definitions and Characteristics
The UK picture:
TV
Radio
Print
Web (with an emphasis on the web)
Top Ten trends
Issues/Barriers
What might happen next?
Q&A

Why does this matter to us?

Political and Social Context
Local TV

Regulatory Context: Purposes
The Communications Act requires us to
“further the interests of citizens and consumers”
Strategic purposes:
To promote effective and sustainable competition,
Promote efficient use of public assets,
Help markets work for consumers,
Provide appropriate assurance to audiences, and
To implement specific public policies defined by Parliament

Regulatory Context: Statutory Duties
Secure wide range of TV and radio services of high quality and wide appeal
Maintain sufficient plurality of providers
Licence national and local analogue and community radio stations
Ensure optimal use of the radio spectrum – including for Local TV

Other reasons why this matters
On-going mission to:
Understand how local media is changing and evolving.
Understand how citizens and consumers use – and value - local media.
Understand new business models.
Understand how hyper-local can underpin local democracy in the UK.
Role of hyper-local in supporting PSB ecology.
Promote Media Literacy (use, understand, create).

Reasons why this matters. Part Two. The evidence base.

Over 90% of adults use the media to source local information on a regular basis
Use TV, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines or teletext to source local information
100%
93%
92%
92%
91%
90%
All adults
80%
70%
60%
50%
2005
2006
2007
2008
Source: Ofcom’s Media Tracker, rolled data from April and October 2008

And localness matters to consumers
% saying local and regional content is very important - weekly users
Scores based on respondents importance rating 9/10 on a scale of 1-10. Source, Ofcom research

But consumption is changing
What is your main source of news about what is going on in your local area?
Source: Ofcom media tracker, rolled data from April and October 2008

With online especially on the rise
Use of local media now compared to two years ago
Source: Ofcom research
13

Accessibility, convenience and quality of information are key drivers to the Web
Reasons use internet more than before
Source: Ofcom research Q8C Why do you now use the internet/websites more than before?Base: UK adults who use internet more than before (n=138)
14

Trend quite likely to continue

As more people go online
Household PC and internet take-up, 2005-2010
Proportion of adults (%)
Source: Ofcom technology tracker, Q1 2010.
Base: All adults aged 15+ (n=9013).

And as models and markets mature
Stuff we’ve already started to see:
New Local and regional newspapers online
Ultra-local reporting and citizen journalism
Emerging hyper-local and community internet services
Location based services
National classified advertising vehicles
With new ideas always on the horizon….

And due, in part, to the very nature of the web itself
“….any innovator can think
of a new idea, a new data format,
a new protocol, something
completely novel, and set up
a site at some random place
and let it take off through word
of mouth, and make a business…”
Tim Berners Lee, Sept 2010

So, that’s the background.Now let’s talk hyper-local.

No single definition
Local and regional media – the consumer view

But broadly speaking
News or content pertaining to a town, village or small community.
Geographically smaller than traditional broadcast regions.
Comes in many different shapes and sizes.
Professional.
Citizen run/produced.
Hybrid.
Aggregator/Automated.
Sometimes also referred to as ‘ultra-local’.
Community media also part of the same mix.

Common Characteristics
More localised – both in terms of geography and types of content - than more mainstream media outlets such as commercial radio, TV regional news, BBC regions, or regional and local newspapers.
Often seeks to fill gaps - geographical, special interest or demographic – audiences hyper-local producers see as unserved, or under-served, by mainstream media.
Diverse sources of funding (if any). Including: advertising, subscriptions, grants from public and private funding bodies and in-kind funding from volunteers.
The value and role of community media goes beyond the provision of content, with specific value often seen in the social capital generated by it’s production.
May be single issue-based, or too small for commercial operators to merit ROI.

Here’s some quick examples
Source: Ofcom analysis. LRM page 43.

… And here’s some in more detail

Local TV in the UK

The starting point

The existing channels
Wholly commercial channel owned by Guardian Media Group. Now on digital, cable and satellite. But programme plans significantly scaled back in 2010
Community model supported by grants from regional and educational bodies. Mix of professional (mainly freelance) labour and volunteers. Emphasis on training
Privately owned channel aimed mainly at ethnic Asian community in Leicester. Strong links with broadcasters in India to source content
Small scale service run on semi-amateur basis. Contains local news and sport.

Channel 7, Immingham
Longest-running local TV channel in the UK. Launched in January 1998.
140,000 homes can access on TV, via Virgin. (Channel 879). Some content online.
The station is a community interest company (a not-for-profit social enterprise).
Own production centre and studios. Broadcasts 9am to 7pm, seven days a week.
What's On, Events and other local info broadcast in graphic form overnight.
Recently won an O2 Think Big Award for its work with young people.
Recent Partnerships
Worked with the owners of the Grimsby Telegraph, on election coverage, including videos for the paper's website and broadcast on Seven as a longer programme.
Community magazine publisher CPO Media to deliver a series of Media Mash Up! Workshops, training local students to create their own websites, magazines and TV.
In partnership with the BBC, it recorded the BBC General Election programme at Immage Studios. The programme was re-broadcast under licence on Seven Local TV, which is believed to be a first for local TV in the UK.

Local Video Online

Local Video Online - background
Smaller number of sites than text based services. Often less well known. Many models.
Some large operations, reasonably well resourced:
Kent TV high profile, pilot closed on 31st March 2010. (Ten Alps, 500k).
Lakes TV on digital platforms, covers the Lakes, Barrow and Penrith.
myCornwall.tv – funders include The Eden Project, Fifteen Restaurant, SW Tourism.
Smaller operations include:
Kings Cross TV - mixes original content with video material pulled in from across the web, but freely available on sites like YouTube and blip.tv.
Camden.tv encourages community to submit films about their area, and acting as a
curator for content across a broad range of themes including history, music and politics.
Hertsweb.tv. – run by Craig McKenzie, in his spare time. Craig works full-time for the NHS, has 2 kids and runs 2 hyper-local sites - Discover Hertford and Ware Online.

Mon-TV
Launched in 2008 offering “Local Television for Monmouthshire”,
Features a weekly 15 minute news bulletin as well as a range of other content such as local Sport, Music, Festivals and human interest stories.
Typically gets 1,000 users a day, increasing by 300% at busy times e.g. Festivals.
Last December it recorded its millionth visitor.
Run (voluntarily) by two professional filmmakers, and volunteers - some doing 15 hours p/w to help with filming, editing and scheduling.
A lot of the content is generated by students doing a City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma at the station; with coursework being showcased in the “Mon TV Academy” . Many graduates stay on as volunteers after graduating.

All go in Witney
Guardian picked up on an interviewWitney TV had done with Jeremy Clarkson, during which the Top Gear presenter revealed that ‘Stig’ had been sacked.
The Independent reported that Witney TV had 10,000 views in the first week, rising to 80,000, and staggering 3.5 million views in the ‘Stig Week’. Started by 4 vols for 11k.
"You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said 'Greed is good, greed works'. Well it doesn't... He's history as far as we're concerned."
Town has a population of about 25,000.
Twitney also providing a platform for local video.
Typically funded by own money, but Twitney, offers sponsors the chance to be featured the start and end of films, as well as selling banner ads, and commissioned features.

Community Radio

Licenced Community Radio
Community radio stations are not-for-profit radio services designed to operate on a small scale and to deliver community benefits aka ‘social gain’, to one or more communities.
Initial legislation introduced in 2004. First station launched November 2005.
Ofcom has to date licensed 228 stations over two rounds of licensing.
181 are broadcasting, 17 have either not launch or handed their licence back.
Remainder preparing to start broadcasting.
9.2 million adults (just over 11 million people) are able to receive a community radio station broadly aimed at them.
C.15% of the total UK population may be able to receive a community radio service aimed at them on FM or AM.

The Community Radio (Amendment) Order 2010
Came into force on 22 January 2010. Changes to the legislation:
Licence extensions: Ofcom can now extend community radio licences for one period of up to five years. The legislation specifies a period in which an application for an extension may be made. This licence extension 'window' commences 18 months prior to the expiry date of the existing licence, and ends six months before the expiry date.
Removal of the 50% limit on funding from any single source: Previously a licensee could not receive more than 50% of its annual funding from any one source (this referred to a single organisation rather than a type of funding such as advertising or grants).
Removal of the restriction on overlap with small-scale commercial services:Prevoiusly a licence could not be granted to a community radio station where the service would overlap with another local service serving fewer than 50,000 in its measured coverage area.

A growing sector

Community Radioin the UK - types of community servedAutumn 2010

Other Community Radio & Audio

Hackney Podcast
The Hackney Podcast won Sony Radio Gold 2010 for the best internet radio programme.
Recently won the Gold award for General programming in the New York Festivals
International Radio Awards.
Launched 2008; available to download for free each month from their website.
The winning podcast looked at water and how it fits into the lives of people in Hackney.
Featured author and psycho-geographer Iain Sinclair and architectural historian Simon Inglis, and music from electro-acoustic composers incl. Francisco Lopez and Stefano Tedesco.

“The Hackney Podcast is just the type of targeted and locally orientated content that sets podcasting apart from conventional radio broadcasting. Using first rate contributors the podcast examined how water fits into the lives of people in Hackney. The production quality is outstanding giving the whole listen a water like lyricism that carries the listen through to it's conclusion.”
Sony Radio Judges, 2010

Prison Radio Association
Based in HMP Brixton, Electric Radio Brixton supports rehabilitation by engaging prisoners in programming that addresses a range of issues related to offending behaviour.
Broadcasts cover issues like education, employment and finance; mental and physical health; drug misuse; maintaining family relationships – all factors key to reducing re-offending.

Majority of content is inspired, developed and produced, under guidance, by prisoners and broadcast across the jail to prisoners in their cells. Advertises educational opportunities and key messages on behalf of the prison or agencies e.g. Samaritans and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Prisoners completing radio training courses gain recognised qualifications and develop a range of skills, including measurable improvements in literacy, numeracy and ICT. They also develop transferable life skills, essential to successful reintegration into mainstream society.
“This no holds barred approach captures the harsh realities of life inside.
The story delivered impact through impressive production techniques and credible story telling.”
Sony Radio Judges

“When your small daughter wins a prize at school, she is in the local paper with all the status in the community that holds. Will the internet replace the local weekly paper? No - the two will live side by side.”
Sir Ray Tindle, quoted in the
Independent on Sunday
31st October 2010

Local & Regional Press
Death of the local presses not quite happened just yet.
Still a big industry as seen by the number of titles, 1995 – 2009
And the number of publishers:
- the Newspaper Society identified 87 local / regional press publishers in early 2009.
Source:
Newspaper Society / Oliver & Ohlbaum analysis

Council Papers
Attracted much publicity – and ire – in recent years.
Eric Pickles has promised to clamp down on "frivolous town hall propaganda papers"
which “threatened the viability of the independent local press.”
Current CLG consultation proposes:
* Councils can only publish municipal newspapers 4 x p.a.
* Must not be direct competition to local press
* Should only include material directly related to council services.
Audit by the Newspaper Society in August 09:
436 Local Authorities in England contacted.
199 replied. 32% said publishing 1/4ly.
Councils have said they are filling a gap in
local news and information no longer
filled by paid-for titles.

H&F News
Hammersmith and Fulham’s Council paper perhaps the best well known / notorious.
Fortnightly.
With lots of ads.
Including a property section.

My focus though is community print
Often best known type of community and hyper-local media:
e.g. newsletters for residents associations or parish councils,
Targeted at a small number of people within a small geographic locale.
Often highly visible, frequently delivered directly to you, or displayed prominently in key locations such as Parish Noticeboards or libraries.
No technology is required to access it.
Long history and tradition e.g. local pamphleteers

Community Print - definition
In this instance, I am not:
Including publications billed as community newspapers such as:
The quarterly Fife Life which is distributed free to 170,000 homes across Fife.
Or Park Life, a “free community newspaper designed exclusively for the residents of
Leigh Park” in Hampshire
These publications are produced by professional bodies on behalf of Councils and other Public Bodies e.g. Fife Life = NHS Fife and Fife Council.
Whilst these are aimed at a specific community, they are not
produced by the community for the community.

“A community newspaper is…”
…usually run on a shoestring with a small number of paid staff (Leys News has three part-time paid staff at the moment, but it's more common in my experience for a community paper to have just one or two paid part-timers.)
usually owes a lot to the work of volunteers, most of whom live locally
numbers its readers in hundreds or thousands
usually comes out bi-monthly or quarterly
actively encourages residents to get involved with the paper
is usually offered free at the point of use
often operates in an area which is defined by Government statistics as deprived
often does things which go beyond a newspaper's core activities: running training courses, organising community fun days, holding drop-in sessions
is often dependent on grant funding to stay afloat financially.”
Kate Griffin, http://www.kategriffin.info/post/how_spot_a_community_newspaper_wild

Hyper-Local Print examples
CPO Media, publishes community based magazines which are delivered free to over 62,000 homes in North East Lincolnshire (Not for Profit Social Enterprise).
Pompey Pensioner - produced by Portsmouth Pensioners Association 6 monthly. Editions are spring/summer and autumn/winter. 7,000 copies printed and distributed at various locations e.g. Community Centres, Churches, Drs etc.
SE Magazines glossy free A5 publications (“micro magazines”) distributed to 5,000+ homes within each postcode. Covers: SE21, SE22, SE23, SE24 and SE26.

Leys News
“Leys News …[is] … the most important source of information for local residents:
achieving 36% of top scores and beating the Oxford Mail into second place.”
Established in 1998. Published every two months.
Reaches almost 5,000 homes and up to 14,000 people.
Community newspaper and as such is non-profit-making.
Delivered to every door on Blackbird / Greater Leys estate SE Oxford.
Supported by a website http://www.leysnews.co.uk/and
Leys Listings (launched Jan 08): a calendar of events, a Useful Numbers section (NHS Direct, out-of-hours emergency contacts for the local housing associations, the Thames Valley Police non-emergency number, etc) and a free classified ads section for residents.
Paid for by one or two small paid-for adverts.
Copies are pinned up in community buildings, takeaways, phone boxes and bus shelters.

Paid for publication (eleven times a year). Established in 1979.
Covers the Earlsdon, Chapelfields, Hearsall and Spon End districts of Coventry.
Provides information, comment and entertainment for residents of these areas.
Produced entirely by a core team of 10-12 volunteers.
But anyone is welcome to contribute.
It is independently financed by sales and advertising
Not affiliated to political, religious or commercial orgs.
Sold through local outlets e.g. newsagents, churches,
pubs and local shops. Sell without taking a commission.
Website has extensive links for local businesses and a
detailed diary of activities organised by local groups.
http://www.echonews.org.uk/

Hackney Citizen
10,000 copies distributed face-to-face in the first week of every month at markets, train stations, and events and also in cafes, shop, businesses and libraries.
Estimated readership: 30,000. Plus online audience: http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/
Written by the community incl. freelancers from NCTJ, Telegraph and the Guardian.
No office, no staff, no overheads.
No previous experience. (Keith Magnum who runs it used to work for the Green Party.)
Sell ads, ABC1 skew.
Won’t take ads from chains competing with local business e.g. Morrisons.
Uses free Guardian API to pull in relevant content produced elsewhere e.g. a visit from Jude Law to the Petchey Academy in Dalston.

Spot the Difference

Hyper-local online

Ten characteristics of hyper-local online
News or Participation from the author.
Opinion blended with facts.
Participation from the community.
Small is big.
Medium agnostic.
Obsessiveness.
Independence.
Link lovers.
Passion.
Lack of money.
Produced by Sarah Hartley, editor of Guardian Local .
http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/10-characteristics-of-hyperlocal/

Diverse ecosystem
Hugh Flouch and Kevin Harris recently identified eight types of site in London.
“Six of those can be described as citizen-led sites, typically set up with a civil purpose.
The remaining two types are run on a commercial basis.”
Civil Social Networks.
Local Discussion Sites.
Placeblogs.
Local Blogazines.
Public Social Spaces.
Local Action Groups Online.
Local Digital News (Commercial).
Multiples & Listings (Commercial).
See: London’s Digital Neighbourhoods Study for more information.

Here’s some examples of different hyper-local activity.Using my own definitions of types.

Online, Commercial

SE1 / Bankside Press
London SE1 Community Website - local news service and discussion forum for London's
South Bank, Bankside, Bermondsey and Waterloo areas. http://www.London-SE1.co.uk
Supported by
in SE1 monthly printed
what's on guide.
SE1 Direct weekly email
newsletter7,200+ subscribers.
SE16.com is our online events
guide for Rotherhithe and
Bermondsey.
All produced by Bankside Press, a small family-run web and print publishing business in SE1.

Neighbour Net
Started in 2000 with ChiswickW4.com
Now runs 9 sites in West London. Mix of news and information.
5 others with listing information.
Membership model.
Over 30,0000 signed up.
Provides some demographic data
Postcode
Real name
DOB
Used when selling ads.
Some shared – and credited
content with the local press.
Looking at further expansion.
http://www.neighbournet.com

Online, Forums

Sheffield Forum
4.5 million posts, 273,638 topics and 111,393 registered users (Oct 10).
Population of Sheffield = 547,000, England’s third largest metropolitan authority

Other Forums
Examples include:
http://www.urban75.com/
Brixton (and plenty of non-Brixton)
related content from gig reviews to
photographs and local forums. Traffic “in excess of quarter of a million page impressions
per day” despite being non-commercial and free of advertising. Launched in 1995.
Launched July 2007. Using white label social networking tools e.g. Ning, Flickr.
Sign up required. 2,000 members. Discussion and interaction with both a civic and social purpose within the neighbourhood of Harringay in the Borough of Haringey.
www.harringayonline.com

Online, Campaigning

Now over 900 articles from Four volunteer writers – aged 40-65
Campaigns, information, wildlife, events etc
Part of wider regeneration – crime down, streets cleaner, public services more responsive

Abandoned cars and weekly arson
Bingfield Park, Rufford Street 2002
In front of Will Perrin’s house
Pics – Mark Bailey

Stolen moped Grand Prixs c2002
Bingfield Park Kings Cross
Most Saturdays when Arsenal at home

The ‘Crackavan’
Rufford Street c2002

Got stuck in to traditional local action over several years........
Kings Cross Development Forum
Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel
West Area Planning Committee
Sparkplug Management Committee
Gifford, Rufford and Randells Residents Association
North King Cross Environmental Taskforce
‘Strategic plans’ - many
West Area Committee
CYP Management committee
....but found huge information burden mostly from council and local public services
Uses the web to streamline all this
Team Cally
Planning Applications (dozens)

Cemex: $multi-billion Mexican multi-national concrete company. Very noisy plant in KX.
Resident led campaign uses videos to evidence noise. YouTube links sent to UK CEO, Council etc.
Cemex capitulate – correct problems and restructure plant.

Online, Storytelling

Other Forums
Stories about life in Spitalfields, East London. Focus on human interest stories and history.
Email sign up for daily updates. Ambition to author 10,000 posts.
“At the rate of one a day, this will take approximately twenty-seven years and four months. Who knows what kind of life we shall be living in 2037 when I write my ten thousandth post?”
Readers from Qatar, Seattle and all over the world, not just E1! Sample user comments:
“Your blog has become a daily joy I look forward to savouring. It’s a bit like a grown-up (and sometimes not-so grown-up) advent calendar. I open it with the same anticipation…”
“I love you gentle author. I read Spitalfields Life when my heart is worn. It makes me think of you and how remarkable the beauty. 2037 indeed. Hope I’m here.”
http://spitalfieldslife.com/

And some others well worth a look…

Selected winners at the Talk About Local and Guardian Local awards earlier this year (NB: the sites not cited elsewhere in these slides)
Best community engagement: - w14London - http://w14london.ning.com
Best use of audio: Mr Caulkhead Isle of Wight colloquialisms: http://www.ipadio.com/phlogs/mrcaulkhead/
Best use of photography - 4am project Karen Strunks - http://4amproject.org/
The Hyperlocal Extreme Award for thrilling, breathtaking or dangerous examples of innovation in a small area - http://www.kingtonblackboard.org - for issues around Christmas lights
Lulz Award for site, project or individual that made us laugh: Glum Councillors - http://glumcouncillors.tumblr.com/
Most Inspirational site: Josh Halliday for firing up young journalists with his doorstep project SR2 - http://sr2blog.com/
Best local special interest website: Greener Leith - http://www.greenerleith.org/
Best use of video: East Salford direct tv - http://eastsalforddirect.co.uk/tv

Top Ten Hyper-Local Trends

1. Big Society
“Today is the start of a deep and serious reform agenda
to take power away from politicians and give it to people.”
(David Cameron, 18th May 2010)
“That’s because we know instinctively that the state is often too inhuman, monolithic and clumsy to tackle our deepest social problems. We know that the best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down. We know that when you give people and communities more power over their lives, more power to come together and work together to make life better – great things happen.”
Core Principles
Give communities more powers
Encourage people to take an active role in their communities
Transfer power from central to local government
Support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises
5. Publish government data

Big Society Launch, No 10, 18 May 2010
whetherman
18 May 2010, 4:00PM
Worrying to see Toby Young grinning away there in the background (apologies if it isn't him). Taking the earliest possible opportunity to get in his bid to take money, staff and resources out of the existing education system so that he can use them to get a better education for his own kids

left side of table:Neil Jameson – London CitizensWilliam Perrin – Talk About Local(Lord) Nat Wei – The Big Society NetworkFrancis Maude – minister for the Cabinet OfficeMartha Lane Fox – AntigoneDavid Cameron – Prime MinisterCamilaBatmanghelidjh – Kids CompanyGeoff Mulgan – Young FoundationDawn Austwick – Esmee Fairbairn FoundationAlly (Alastair) Tibbitt – Greener LeithRob Owen – St Giles Trust
right side of table:Paul Twivy – CEO, The Big Society NetworkDavid Robinson – Community LinksLord Victor Adebowale – Turning PointAdele Blakeborough – CAN BreakthroughDick Atkinson – Balsall Heath ForumNick Clegg – Deputy Prime MinisterHilary Cottam – ParticipleNick Hurd – Minister for Civil SocietyRay Mallon – Mayor of MiddlesboroughRolande Anderson – director of what was formerly The Office of the Third SectorStephen Howard – Business in the Community

2. A new vision for local television
“I have long believed that the lack of high quality local TV is one of the biggest gaps in British broadcasting.”
Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport
8 June 2010

RTS, 28 September 2010
Jeremy Hunt has now outlined measures to improve the prospects for local TV:
Removal of all local cross-media ownership rules
Public service broadcasting to be “redefined” with greater emphasis on delivery of local content
Legislation to clarify which PSB channels should get guaranteed page one position on EPG

Shott Report: interim findings
Nicholas Shottidentified commercial challenges in delivering local TV on DTT:
May be more appropriate to plan for local “services” rather than channels
An existing national channel could act as “host” for local TV “windows” at set times OR offer on-screen prompt to “red button” services
Limited number of services based on largest urban conurbations
Additional revenue sources needed e.g. channel sponsorship
Long term future may lie with IPTV

3. Open Data and Transparency
Government transparency agenda includes a commitment to make public all Council
Expenditure over £500, salaries of Public Servants earning £150,000+ and organograms.
CLG are encouraging financially literate citizens to act as ‘Armchair Auditors’
scrutinising Council expenditure in a similar manner to the way that the Guardian asked
people to help them review MP’s expenses.
Adrian Short’s
Website for the
Royal Borough
Of Windsor &
Maidenhead

OpenlyLocal is charting which Councils have open data or not, matching up spending
data by Council, and matching suppliers with real companies (using sites like
CompaniesOpenHouse) to compare spending with companies across several Councils.

Lots of sites are using other off the shelf resources e.g. mySociety tools
FixMyStreet: report, view, or discuss local problems like graffiti, fly tipping, broken paving slabs, or street lighting.
32,000 problems reported across the UK. Users get updates and notifications that problems have been fixed.
TheyWorkForYou: one-stop shop about your Westminster MP. Includes their voting record, speeches and email alerts when they speak in the House.

4. Civic Engagement
Means for two way engagement from the public with elected officials, Councils et al.
Sites belonging to officials, or a means for them to contribute on other Forums.
“Formby First”
started May 2007.
Sean Brady is a
Parish Councillor.
Formby, small
seaside town
in Merseyside.

Or you might find other officials using sites and forums set up by others.

Councils are also embracing hyper-local tools and social media…
Xxxxx
Barnet Council using FixMyStreet: http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/
Walsall Council wanted to use Flickrpics on their website.
Designed a Flickr friendly header to sit across all pages.
Asked the Walsall Flickr group to add the tag ‘walsallweb’ to each picture they wanted considered.
400 shots tagged for consideration in three days.
“People taking pictures of the place they live and seeing them
showcased on their council’s website HAS to be a good idea.”
Dan Slee, Senior Press and Publicity Officer at Walsall Council, on his personal blog.

5. Social Capital
“Social capital describes the pattern and intensity of networks among
people and the shared values which arise from those networks.
Greater interaction between people generates a greater sense
of community spirit.” (ONS)
Like many Londoners, I couldn’t identify my neighbours in a line up.
But I happily use the power of the crowd to book hotels (Tripadvisor)
buy online (eBay) or choose a restaurant (TopTable).
And now I do this locally too. Finding tradesmen,
or a cat sitter based on recommendations of
local people I don’t know.
Will also leave comments and recommendations:
feel more closely connected to physical
community as a result, even if often my
only interaction is virtual.

6. Location Based Services
Information and entertainment services, accessed through mobile networks which
harness the ability to identify the geographical position of the device/user.
Characteristics
Share your location – and status - with friends.
Discover businesses and services near you.
Rate aforementioned businesses and services.
See if your friends are nearby, or invite them to join you.
Rewards / incentives to share e.g. badges, discounts etc.
Best known examples: Foursquare and Facebook Places.
Others, often US only atm: Gowalla, SCVNGR, Whrrl, Loopt and Brightkite

“Foursquare is a mobile application that makes cities easier to use and more interesting
to explore. It is a friend- finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to
experience new things, and rewards them for doing so. Foursquare lets users "check in"
to a place when they're there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where
they've been and who they've been there with.”
Launched at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas in March 2009.
c3 million users worldwide (August 2010).
15,000 venues experimenting with Special Offers on foursquare.

Insert Fsq in Space slide

Facebook Places
Launched August 2010. Just 9 months after development started.
Focused on getting the three core elements right :
finding friends,
checking-in,
building stories about places
Will add rewards or deals with locations/companies in the future.

Still small fry…
Why?
It’s pretty new, so low awareness.
7% awareness amongst adults in US, April 2010.
Low understanding of benefits.
Low numbers vs. critical mass.
“None of my friends are on it. so what’s the point?”
Not enough businesses /deals to merit signing up.
4. Privacy
“The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home.” http://pleaserobme.com/
5. Big brands late to the party
But large user base may mean leapfrogging more ‘established’ services.

But big potential for growth
Individuals
Desire to share where we are, what we are doing and what we are thinking.
On-going rise of the smartphone.
Access to free stuff, or discounts.
Herd mentality (follow your friends).
Location based activity becomes the norm.
Businesses
Develop relationship with customers – consumer insight and can drive loyalty
e.g. Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.
("Foursquare says you've been here 10 times? That's a free drink for you!")
If your competitors are there, then you will have to follow suit.
Once integration is possible, can squirt out messages on all platforms / programmes.

7. Advertising
Location Based Advertising
Predicted value $1.8bn by 2015, up from est. $43m in 2010 (ABI Research Sept 10)
Uses a mix of GPS, Wi-Fi, and /or Cell-ID depending on the product or service, the region, the consumers, and the location accuracy required.
Targets users with relevant local information, and ads for local businesses.
Google, says such ads already get 8% more clickthroughs than basic mobile ads.
Already live in the UK
O2 customers signed up to O2 More receive messages pushed from Starbucks and L'Oreal, regardless of their handset or contract, but only when they pass through locations pertinent to those companies.
Service is opt in. Launched 15/10/10. No more than one message a day.

Some other advertising things to note
Agencies
Hyper-local media buying agency Oxbury Media, has built up an ad network of 10,000
sub local newspaper publications and sites representing a 10m+ audience.
Addiply
"You know how you used to place an advert in the window of your local Post Office?
This is Norfolk's answer to Google AdSense..."
Matches advertisers directly to community publishers, without third party intervention.
Commercial Portals
Such as: BeLocal.com, http://www.welovelocal.com,
http://trustedplaces.com (Yell), http://www.localmole.co.uk/ (Trinity Mirror),
http://www.localmouth.com/ and http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/

8. Traditional Media goes hyper… local
Launched mid launched mid September 2010. Pan-Scottish roll out by end 2011.
Six pilot sites: www.stv.tv/airdrie, www.stv.tv/bellshill, www.stv.tv/coatbridge, www.stv.tv/cumbernauld, www.stv.tv/motherwell, and www.stv.tv/wishaw.
(Branded according to area, e.g. STV Motherwell or STV Cumbernauld)
Content: news, events listings, ratings and reviews, weather, traffic, business directory. Plus information from local public bodies, sports organisations, theatre groups, schools, church groups, and other engaged community members.
Editorial team working with “content partners and community contributors” to encourage UGC (as well as producing their own material).
Links to media courses, training for contributors in web publishing and writing.
Digital advertising opportunities e.g. banner ads, classified listings.
Plusnet launch sponsor.

Newspapers going hyper-local
Smaller titles have always existed alongside bigger ones. Examples of new initiatives include:
Associated Northcliffe Digital
23 Localpeople projects launched in 2009, mostly in the South West.
Associated says Localpeople has grown on average 22% p/m. Now has 100 websites.
Aims to expand to 200 by Summer 2011.
Guardian Local
Designed to bring “a small-scale community approach to local newsgathering” in Edinburgh,
Leeds and Cardiff . Each location has a dedicated beatblogger working in communities,
finding stories and using mySociety tools, e.g. TheyWorkForYou.com and FixMyStreet.com.
Trinity Mirror
Teesside Gazette, has 10 online hyperlocal blogs, which each focus on a single postcode and
are run by unpaid volunteers.
Sites like that for the TM owned Uxbridge Gazette
also contains links to hyper-local platforms.

Newspaper sites typically have sites within a site e.g. this is Croydon Today
Xxxx

9. The changing face of Journalism
"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald,
cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting.”
"But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late
at night.… It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism."
"Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. Terrible things are said online because
they are anonymous. People say things online that they wouldn't dream of saying in
person.”
Andrew Marr, at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, October 2010

Two worlds collide?
“I’m a journalist, not a blogger. I use a blog platform to publish, but that doesn’t make me
a second class citizen in the journalism world.”
But while I love newspapers, came from them and hope they continue to find a place….
I’m begging them to stop seeing bloggers as enemies. Many bloggers are journalists, part
of the news ecosystem, colleagues that are entitled to respect.”
Danny Sullivan, Journalist and Blogger, 2009
But they’re not mutually exclusive
Roy Greenslade of the Guardian and City University also covers his neighbourhood – Kemp
Town in Brighton – for the local paper, as a community reporter.
Andrew Gilligan, London Editor of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph (and formerly of the
Evening Standard and BBC News) writes a weekly column for a hyper-local site in the
area he lives in. “Gilligan's Greenwich" - http://www.greenwich.co.uk/andrew-gilligan/

Two worlds collide

But is hyper-local journalism?
That’s a whole debate we don’t have time for today. But we can touch on it…
Some bloggers say it isn’t and are keen to stress they’re not journalists.
Jon Bounds, Birmingham: It’s Not Shit (“Mildly sarcastic since 2002″)
“I’m not a journalist, nor have aspirations to be one gives the site freedom — that it doesn’t solicit
adverts (the few on the site are unpaid favours to friends) gives it a strength. A strength to not cover
things that aren’t interesting, and to be seen as independent.”
Other sites stem from journalistic backgrounds:
The Lichfield Blog was launched in January 2009, by Ross Hawkes, senior lecturer in
journalism at Staffs Uni. Started his journalistic career at the now defunct Lichfield Post.
Saddleworthnews.com – edited by Richard Jones, a journalist who is currently a stay-at-
home dad and who voluntarily updates his site.

Overlaps
I would argue that many hyper-local sites shares many of the characteristics and content
we expect from journalists; from newspapers, from Regional TV news, from local radio…
Holding authority to account
Investigations
Council Reporting
Local campaigns
Coverage of events; from Festivals to General Elections
Local News
Local Sport
What’s On and Listings
Classifieds
Reporting on Emergencies
Some quick examples…

Investigations
“The site helps you build a team to investigate that – and that team will suggest
‘challenges’ to pursue in getting answers.
Sometimes we will build tools that make getting those answers easier.
This is not a discussion forum, or a news website – although you might have discussions or link to stories elsewhere. It is a community of curious people, and a set of tools to help those people find each other, and get answers.”
Conceived by Paul Bradshaw
and co-proposed by Heather
Brooke, the journalist who
kick-started the drive for
disclosure of MPs’ expenses.
Funded by 4iP and Screen WM..
Launched Summer 2009.

Holding public bodies to account
The £25,000 website which attracts just 10 visitors a day
FOI from the Saddleworth News hyper-local site to Oldham Council.
Showed “Oldham Says” received just 2,548 unique visits in the six months to the end of September 2010.
“Oldham Says” is aimed at residents.
Supports a local strategic partnership for the area, which brings together representatives from bodies including the council, Greater Manchester Police, the local NHS, the education sector and others, to tackle various problems.
FOI showed
“With a total of £25,544 having been spent on setting up the site, that’s roughly equivalent
to an incredible £10 for each and every click.
The site’s readership has been particularly low in the last two months, with just 268 people
logging on in August and 296 doing so in September.”

Council Reporting
Ventnor Blog, Isle of Wight
Pits n Pots, Stoke

Making sense of the CSR
BCU MA Online Journalism students have set up a hyperlocal blog for the 50,000 public sector workers in the region, primarily to report those budget cuts and how they are affecting people.
http://birminghambudgetcuts.blogspot.com/

Ventnor blog solicited, and published, a range of responses from IoW related bodies:
IW Council Reaction To Government Spending Review
Hampshire Police Authority: Response To Comprehensive Spending Review
Chancellor’s Spending Review Deepens Concern of LINk Members
(Local Involvement Networks are individuals and community groups, such as faith groups and residents' associations, working together to improve health and social care services).

Covering Emergencies
In 2006 the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was won by the blog run by the New Orleans
Times Picayune during Hurricane Katrina. The site showed how the paper continued to
provide vital information online when the paper couldn’t otherwise reach key audiences.
Extract:
“T-P EVACUATING Tuesday, 9:40 a.m.
The Times-Picayune is evacuating it's New Orleans building.
Water continues to rise around our building, as it is throughout the region. We want to
evacuate our employees and families while we are still able to safely leave our building.
Our plan is to head across the Mississippi River on the Pontchartrain Expressway to the
west bank of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. From there, we'll try to head to Houma.
Our plan, obviously, is to resume providing news to our readers ASAP. Please refer back to
this site for continuing information as soon as we are able to provide it.”

News and Sport
Hertsweb.tv. recorded and streamed General Election hustings live, using a vision mixer he
had bought on eBay for £50.
Lichfield Blog – 12,000 uniques a month, 10 stories a day. News only.
In contrast thisislichfield.co.uk only publishes stories on a Thursday when they also come
out in print.
Or Sports sites like Norwich City:
http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/
And dedicated local sports sections on sites like Mon-TV.

Either way, journalism is changing…
From training
CUNY received $3 million to create the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism.
To working practises
ChiTownDailyNews.org in Illinois employs four journalists but is training 350 neighborhood
Volunteers to write about their community, finding stories the mainstream press would
never hear about.
Spot Us, launched in November 2008 and is a nonprofit project, based in San Francisco.
Pioneering “community funded reporting” by getting freelance journalists to pitch specific
news stories, explaining online why the topic deserves further investigation.
If members of the public agree, they can make a donation — sometimes just $10 or $20
— to pay the journalist to produce the more detailed story.
And funding
Google has given $5m to fund xxxx (CHECK)
Non-profits emerging: http://www.public-press.org/ (San Fran) or in DC the
http://washingtonindependent.com/ .
+ The Knight Foundations annual $5m digital news challenge.

10. Drive to get more people online
Martha Lane Fox appointed by The Prime Minister as the UK Digital Champion. (June 10)
Role includes:
encouraging as many people as possible to get online in the lifetime of this Parliament,
advising Government on realising efficiencies through the online delivery of public services.

Manifesto for a ‘Networked Nation’. (July 10)
one fifth of the population in the UK, 10 million people, is not online.
missing out on consumer savings, access to vital information and educational success as a result.
The Manifesto called for urgent action to get millions more online by the end of 2012 with
key roles for government, industry and charities with the aim:
“To get everyone of working age online by the end of this Parliament,
so that everyone who then retires will have skills to enjoy benefits of the web”.

Top Ten Recap

Issues and Challenges

Top 5 Challenges
Discoverability
Funding and Making it Pay
(CSR cuts, advertising – small revenues or inappropriate ads from Ad Sense, ‘big media’ paying for stories etc.)
3. Resources (often run by one person, or small group)
- especially an issue in the event of a legal challenge (lack of legal and financial resources, Union support etc.)
4. Isolation and opportunities to learn from others
Audience perceptions of quality
- Our LMR consumer research suggested that some consumers may be turned-off by community media if they perceive it to be low in quality compared to other forms of local media.
- But other research, and anecdotal evidence suggests strong stickability once services are found.

Loyal and Regular users
Chart showing
where people
get their local
news from.
NB: self declared
(c/o Networked
Neighbourhoods)

Top 5 Opportunities
1. More partnerships between big traditional media and hyper-local producers.
Already seen 4iP and Talk About Local.
New BBC Local Fund announced. Details TBC.
The Birmingham Mail Communities project : 34 hyper-local sections on the Birmingham Mail website, featuring content from local blogs including Digbeth is Good, The Lichfield Blog and Bournville Village.
Nick Booth’s new BBC blog on hyper-local websites: “Besides taking an interest in the bloggers, what they write and why they do it, I’ll also be talking to a number of BBC newsrooms and production teams and introducing people.”
2. Cost of creation continuing to decline (e.g. iPhone, Flip, Wordpress, hosting etc.).
3. Sector starting to develop cross links.
Big Society – more volunteers.
Tie ins with academic bodies, which can encourage diversity and broaden talent pool
- Bournemouth University launched it’s own hyper-local site: http://www.standfirstonline.co.uk/
- 13 journalism schools in the US taking part in PatchU initiative, with Patch.

What might happen next?

1. Overseas players join the UK market
Most likely, Patch. Which AOL invested $50m in last year.
“One journalist in each town travels to school board meetings and coffee shops with a laptop and camera.
Patch also solicits content from readers, pulls in articles from other sites and augments it all with event listings,
volunteer opportunities, business directories and lists of local information like recycling laws. “
Dramatic growth and investment plans
April 2010 = 46 sites in 5 states.
400 hyperlocal sites over the next six months, bringing its total to 500.
Hiring 500 more reporters in 20 states.
“Biggest new hirer of full-time journalists in the U.S.” (Actually, most are part-time.)
Expansion plans uses a 59-variable algorithm which includes factors like the average household income, how often citizens vote, and high school ranking.
Claims it costs 1/25 of the cost of a daily newspaper in the same town.

2. Location becomes the norm
LBS is pretty new. But it may soon become just as much a part of our social media
activity as hashtags or tagging friends in pictures on Facebook.
1. Twitter has launched location-based trending topics and location-tagged tweets,
2. Location based advertising is on the rise.
3. Geo-tagging becomes more and more popular e.g. Flickr, Picasa etc.
“This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation.“
"It's still early days and there's no single 'right' approach to location-based advertising. But as advertisers and vendors get into the space, location
will become a more natural part of the ecosystem.”
Neil Strother, director for mobile marketing strategies, ABI Research.

3. New partnerships and tie ins
Starbucks Digital Network launched in the US in October 2010.
Offers free (was paid) in-store Wi-Fi and exclusive content for mobile devices.
c.30m logins to its Wi-Fi p/m. Mostly accessed by smartphones and iPads.
The network's content includes news, entertainment, business, and health channels, as well as local neighbourhood information.
Content providers for the network include Bookish Reading Club, Foursquare, GOOD, LinkedIn, New Word City, and The Weather Channel.
You can also access special content from the New York Times, iTunes,
and WSJ.com, the latter of which normally sits behind a paywall.

4. More reverse publishing
Online content converted into print products.
Attractive to audience not online, or who don’t use the web beyond email or Skype.
Sweeble, allows community websites to be easily converted into a print product.
See also Zinepal, Printcasting, iNews and FeedJournal.
US blogger Michael Josefowicz talks about a new model:
"Ground > Cloud > Print“ He calls this; “the Printernet”.

Current reverse publishing
In Bakersfield, California, the Northwest Voice (owned by the daily newspaper, the
Bakersfield Californian) launched in May 2008, taking the best of its Web site and
putting it in print every other Thursday, delivering it to every house in NW Bakersfield.
The Chicago Tribune’s Triblocal initiative spans 36 websites and six weekly newspapers
with a circulation of just over 100,000.
Operates across towns in five counties.
Community contributors, staff editors and sales staff, update website daily.
Publishes a weekly insert showcasing the best of this online community content.
This is distributed along with the main paper one day each week.
Inserts are bespoke to each of the different communities involved in Triblocal.
HU17.net, which covers Beverley, has started a weekly print version. It’s a small print
run – about 100 copies. Paul Smith, the publisher, told The Guardian:
“Local shops have been very supportive with many signing up to advertising package
that is realistic and very affordable, something that was certainly needed in the area.”

Everything is Social
For some of us, some of the time, much of what we do is already social…
Clickthroughs on news stories or items friends post to their Facebook wall.
Following trends via a twitter #tag.
Social bookmarking like Del.icious.
Google Alerts.
Netvibes.
75% of news consumed online is through shared news from
social networking sites or e-mail. Social news is finding us.
Mashable, Summer 2010

Relationships with old media are changing
We no longer trust journalists like we did
“What ought to worry all journalists is the
massive slide in trust, relative to other
organisations or groups, since this question
was first asked five years ago…
Of the 23 groups covered in the current survey,
journalists have performed worse than every
other one.
That applies to each of the seven different kinds
of journalists we identified except one – the
red-top reporters, whose reputation was so low
that it could hardly sink any further.
Just about the only crumb of comfort to be derived from the figures is the fact that red-
top journalists no longer prop up the table but have the dubious consolation of being
overtaken (or undertaken) by estate agents.”
Steven Barnett, British Journalism Review, Vol 19, No 2, 2008

We increasingly want different things
The days when “news and information were tightly controlled by a few editors, who
deigned to tell us what we could and should know,” are over.
No longer would people accept “a godlike figure from above” presenting the news
as “gospel.” Today’s consumers “want news on demand, continuously updated.
They want a point of view about not just what happened but why it happened. . . .
And finally, they want to be able to use the information in a larger community—
to talk about, to debate, to question, and even to meet people
who think about the world in similar or different ways.”
Rupert Murdoch, 2005,

“Small is the new big”
“Don’t dictate to me.
Or decide for me.
This is what you’re getting.
At Six O'clock.
On Channel 3.
News from Bedford when you live in a sleepy town just outside Beccles.
Big is bust; big is broken.
Small is the new big.
And what the web embraces, encourages and empowers is the individual…”
Rick Waghorn, Norfolk blogger and journo

How consumption has – and is - changing

2009 + the move to social

2020 - Traditional broadcasting and news consumption is “dead”

Thanks for listening.Any questions?

Some Recommended Reading
5 useful sites about hyper-local
Openly Local's Hyperlocal Directory: http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites
Hyperlocal Voices on Paul Bradshaw's Online Journalism Blog: http://onlinejournalismblog.com/tag/hyperlocal-voices/
Talk About Local Blog: http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/blog/
Networked Neighbourhoods: http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/
Sarah Hartley - editor of Guardian Local - personal blog: http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/
5 hyper-local sites to look at
Urban - http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/
Storytelling - http://spitalfieldslife.com/
Holding authority to account - http://pitsnpots.co.uk/
Rural - http://parwich.org/ (400 page views a day, village of 500)
Mix of all of the above - http://ventnorblog.com/

Comments, feedback, further examples and different views are all welcome!damian.radcliffe@ofcom.org.uk@mrdamian76

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Introduction to hyper local media: full 12 inch version

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Introduction to hyper local media: full 12 inch version — Presentation Transcript