Episode Information
Newspapers can’t cover local communities the way they once did…so who steps in?
It's a confusing time in the news business. We're stuck somewhere in between How Things Used To Be and Whatever Comes Next, but online publications are testing a variety of business models and content strategies. One of the biggest? The hyper-local news site. Wanna know about a town council meeting? An important zoning plan? A community fair? Just log on... or better yet, get involved in reporting the news.
Some sites, like the New Haven Independent have taken it a step further – breaking investigative stories and going where newspapers can’t.
Join the conversation - Where do you go to get reliable news about your community? How should new media ensure that what they're doing is good journalism?
![Coast Guard Academy Graduation - Class of 2011\](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/5734853387_8e99a3db54_s.jpg "Coast Guard Academy Graduation - Class of 2011\")
Listener Email from Mary
Please note that because the local environment is so woefully under reported by the established media - either because upper management and editors dismiss the significance of local environmental news, and/or because local environmental news stories require investigative reporting that may not seem as sexy or career building as stories about pristine monumental natural places (Alaska, or Mt everest) - local environmental non-profits have to print local environmental news in their own newsletters. Yet that news only reaches members and enviromentalist, which generates a problem of unaware general population.
Hyper-local news for women
I came up with the idea to start an online magazine for women in the Greater Hartford area in the middle of this past summer. Once I had the plan in place I began to search for models to follow for layout purposes - that's when I came across the term "hyper-local" and immediately said "Yes, that is IT! That is what I want to be." The potential for growth is there and, even though there are quite a few of us now in the Hartford Market we all have staked out a different niche and this leaves room for all of us.