Posts Tagged "new york times"

5
Oct 10

CONTEST ALERT: Enter by THURSDAY to Win a Spot in The New York Times’ Online Course in Hyperlocal Blogging

Posted by Esther Brown in Announcements / Bloggers We Love / General — View Comments

We recently heard that our friends at The New York Times are now offering a course on Hyperlocal Blogging, which we think is great news. The online, self-paced course is designed for people who want to start a blog to serve the news and information needs of their community— no journalism experience required (though experienced hands are welcome as well). We think this is such great news that we’re offering scholarships to two lucky individuals who want to take the course.

If you’re interested in winning a scholarship, it’s easy to enter, but you have to act FAST: simply fill out this form by midnight on Thursday, October 7.

The two lucky winners will be randomly selected on the morning of Friday, October 8. Winners will be contacted via email and then announced publicly, right here on our blog.

According to Jim Schachter, associate managing editor of The New York Times:

There is no single right way to establish a successful community news site. But the experience that we’ve gleaned publishing The Local sites in and around New York – combined with our rich, deep experience as reporters and editors at The Times – gives us a lot of wisdom and short-cuts to share with anyone who wants to dive into this emerging world.

Taught by Deputy Metro Editor Mary Ann Giordano, Hyperlocal Blogging will cover:

  • The fundamentals of community journalism and local reporting, including how to find and present information, how to check facts and how to preserve fairness in local coverage;
  • Fundamentals of designing a site and building it out;
  • How to find and develop an audience, how to use social media to get a blog noticed, and how to get the community (including potential sponsors) involved and engaged.

Too excited to wait on contest results? Visit www.nytimes.com/knownow for more information or to register for Hyperlocal Blogging.

The first session of this brand-new course begins October 12, and runs through November 8, with course registrations accepted through October 10. Cost for the course is $175 (unless you win a scholarship, in which case it’s FREE!).

9
Sep 09

National Media Companies Chase Local

Posted by camilla in General / Industry Notes & Commentary — View Comments

There’s been a flurry of major news surrounding hyperlocal lately: AOL acquiring Patch and Going.com, MSNBC snatching up EveryBlock, and just this week, we hear that The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times will soon be launching local editions in the San Francisco market. ESPN recently launched a Chicago-focused site and will soon launch in two other sports-centric cities: Boston and Dallas. Similarly, Fox Sports is planning to go after the Detroit and Houston sports fans. All very interesting news. All with the same theme: big national (actually, global) media companies going after the local market. Before you know it, every major national media company will be pursuing a local strategy.

So, why are these big corporations chasing after local? What makes them think they can enter this new space when their focus has historically been on a much broader national level? Well, the temptations are compelling, and a smart local approach actually may make sense for some of these companies at this point in time. Some factors they’re probably considering:

  1. increasing local online ad dollars
  2. changing local landscape with new entrants and incumbents, where the once-dominant local papers are facing serious financial problems
  3. demand for more hyperlocal content and news that the local publishers are not covering like they used to due to resource constraints
  4. “keeping up with the Joneses” factor: everybody else is doing it, maybe I should get in on the action too

The combination of these factors (and probably several others) add up to a big opportunity. After all, local content brings the potential of new users, improved visitor loyalty, and additional local / regional ad revenues.

But as many folks know, the online local game is a tough nut to crack.  The notion of local is personal and subjective, sources of relevant content are numerous and growing, and local ad sales presents its own set of challenges with SMBs still struggling to make the online transition. The best player poised to win this game is still the local publisher! They have the inside knowledge, the connection to the community, and the long-standing relationships with the local businesses. As long as the local publishers are willing to adapt to a new model of news and committed to innovating and working with the right set of partners, they have a leg up on their national or global competitors.

So, local publishers: Don’t panic that the big boys are out to eat your lunch. Think of this as a wake-up call that you are in a highly desirable sector full of new opportunities. And the time is now: Big corporations move slowly, so the smaller guys should be more nimble to make and implement changes. We hope many of the local publishers see this as the ideal time to reinvent yourselves and re-claim your local territory. And outside.in is here to help.

31
Aug 08

All the News Doesn’t Fit in Print

Posted by mark in General / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

Great story in today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, and not only because they give us a great shout out:

“READ LOCALLY: Your town is now big news on the Web. Outside.in serves 11,860 such towns. Have family in West Orange, N.J., 07052? Check outside.in for talking points: the nasty speed trap in Livingston, say, or what kosher sushi tastes like.”

The piece talks about the gap that exists between traditional media coverage and people’s need to know about important things happening in their neighborhood.  The author, Virginia Heffernan, shares her quest to find out the details of a death in her neighborhood and how it wasn’t until she made her way to a commenter on a local blog the Brooklyn Heights Blog that she found the details she was wanted.

Usually when we talk about placeblogging we use less serious examples, but the reality is that news coverage has changed and the ability for traditional media to cover important events at the neighborhood level leaves a big gap — there just isn’t enough room or resources to print all the news that fits.

Summed up nicely in the piece:

“Although a violent death in Brooklyn, where I live, might have made the front page 50 years ago, The New York Times, the New York Post and The Daily News kept mum on their Web sites.”

Lastly, in referencing the Brooklyn Eagle — a great local newspaper — Heffernan utters a phrase that I think we’ll start using around the office when we talk about why we are so focused on creating a truly personalized hyperlocal experience:

“…first thing in the morning, it can be hard to care about other people’s neighborhoods.”

26
Jun 08

Kudos to Crime Solving Local Bloggers

Posted by josh in General / News — View Comments

This morning the New York Times had an article titled “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid.”

Participant’s on the BayRidgeTalk.com message board started talking about the suspicious activity and noise around a house in the neighborhood. Posts such as “Fighting and drug deals going down in the driveway of this house,” started appearing. Several neighbors also attended local community board meetings, filed complaints, and eventually got the attention of the police, who started a narcotics investigation which led to the arrest of three suspects on charges of conspiracy, drugs, and weapons charges.

This story is a great example of the way hyperlocal content starts dialogue, which can rally people, and then lead to action. Best summarized by a local pet shop owner involved on the site, “At the end of the day, it was about putting aside anonymity, putting aside the HTML and physically showing up.” Great advice for all of us to get up, get out, and meet our neighbors. And blog about it, of course.

Congratulations BayRidgeTalk.com.

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