Presentation to NAA MediaXchange conference about the state of hyperlocal and InJersey.com

1. THREE HURRAHS FOR
HYPERLOCAL
JOURNALISM
Finding a business model
amidst all the hype

2. WHO AM I?
• Ted Mann — ted@injersey.com / @turkeymonkey
• Digital Development Director for Gannett NJ
• Manage five core newspaper sites and five sister sites in NJ
• Obsessed with open source

3. POP QUIZ
• Which local media organization is currently hiring 55 positions,
including reporters and editors?
• What is the total estimated potential revenue in the hyperlocal
space? $13 Billion
• What is the one area where Gannett’s New Jersey newspapers --
e.g. Courier-Post, Asbury Park Press, The Daily Journal -- are
expanding local news coverage?
• Where can journalism students edit and publish directly to the
New York Times website?

5. 2004

6. 2010

7. WHAT IS HYPERLOCAL?
• News or content pertaining to a town or small community.
• Often
involves collaboration between veteran journalists and
community members or citizen journalists.
Hyperlocal Not Hyperlocal

8. LOTS OF DIFFERENT MODELS
• Citizen-run
• Full-time journalists
• Pro-Am (hybrid)
• Aggregator

12. “JARVIS” BUSINESS MODEL
• NewsInnovation.com/models
• Assumptions: $3-$15k startup; 20-60k population

13. MONETIZING HYPERLOCAL

14. THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
User-Generated Content
(how do you get people to do more than post comments?)
Some of the solutions ....

15. INJERSEY.COM
CITIZEN JOURNALIST MODEL
• Open Registration and a social network for citizen journalists (powered by
WordPress MU & BuddyPress)

16. DEMO
http://injersey.com/about/

17. OPEN REGISTRATION =
OPEN ACCESS
• User profiles, ability to author posts, access to all sites

19. COACHING CITIZEN
JOURNOS
• Using PM’s to issue assignment requests and ideas
• Messaging to send feedback and revision requests
• Member profiles to ensure some degree of accountability

20. OTHER WAYS OF FOSTERING
CITIZEN JOURNALISM
• SeeClickFix
• Twitter
• Google Moderator

21. “Doing journalism in 2010 is an
act of community organizing”
—Robert Niles, The Online Journalims Review

22. CONTACT INFO
InJersey.com
Ted Mann: ted@injersey.com / @turkeymonkey
Personal Blog: turkeymonkey.com