hyperlocal

Forgive me but I have to plug something my company (Frog Design) is involved in. I'm only doing this because it is such a neat event: In collaboration with Frog, NPR will host a unique Digital Think In this Friday in our offices in San Francisco, bringing together 60 thought leaders at the intersection of media and technology to explore new approaches to content creation, distribution, and funding for NPR and NPR member stations.

Hosted by NPR CEO and President Vivian Schiller and Digital Media SVP and General Manager Kinsey Wilson, the Think In will harness the collective expertise … Read more

Citizen news site NowPublic has been sold to another company in the "hyperlocal" space, Examiner.com, the two companies announced Tuesday.

The two sites will operate independently, but Examiner will integrate NowPublic's technology into its site and will encourage NowPublic's contributors to also write for Examiner--right now, the buyer says it has grown 200 percent since the beginning of the year (it launched in April 2008) and has 15,000 active contributors, hoping to hit 30,000 by year's end.

NowPublic's executives, including CEO Leonard Brody, will join the management team of Clarity Digital … Read more

Monday's news that MSNBC acquired EveryBlock, a "hyperlocal" news service just a few months after AOL acquired a competing service, Patch, had me thinking about all the start-ups that are vying for your attention by targeting your neighborhood. Of course, many of these sites don't work with every neighborhood, so your mileage will vary.

Regardless, I thought that with the EveryBlock acquisition, it was time to take a look at those services providing a hyperlocal experience.

EveryBlock EveryBlock, which was just acquired by MSNBC, features some outstanding hyperlocal features. The site provides local news, crime reports, and other information at the block level.

Currently, EveryBlock works with a handful of cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami. It would have been nice to find information on more areas around the U.S., but it wasn't so bad. The site does a great job of finding local information, including lost and found lists, building permits, and other information that might be useful to someone living in a particular location. EveryBlock is a great site. I just wish it supported more cities. (Click here for our full review of EveryBlock.)

Outside.in Outside.in is one of the nicest resources in this roundup. It finds out what's happening in (at last count) 35,312 neighborhoods around the U.S. and delivers it to people in those areas.

When you first get to the site, Outside.in asks you to input a ZIP code. From there, it finds local news, discussions (it has a message board for each neighborhood), and establishments for you to check out. I was happy to see that both small suburbs and major metro areas were included in the list of neighborhoods on Outside.in. And since all of the information is constantly updated, it was a great way to find out what's going in my area.… Read more

A nice little summer shopping spree for AOL: Under the auspices of new CEO Tim Armstrong, the company has acquired "hyperlocal" news site Patch and hipster-oriented events listing site Going.com.

The acquisition of Patch isn't too much of a surprise. Armstrong founded and invested in Patch while at his former gig as Google sales chief. The start-up offers a model for local news on the Web and plans to have launched in a dozen cities by the end of 2009. Going, meanwhile, has been around since 2006 and offers event and invitation services along with ticketing. … Read more

Today's New York Times has a timely trend piece about the rise of "hyperlocal" news sites--those that aim to create or aggregate news down to the neighborhood (or block). The angle: will these sites take over as an increasing number of local newspapers go under?

If you read tech news regularly, you probably won't find much that's surprising in the article, since sites like Outside.in and Placeblogger have been around for years now. But the question of what will happen, now that struggling newspapers are cutting back on their print editions, or even shutting … Read more

It isn't exactly breaking new ground to say many newspapers are struggling. Nor is it breaking new ground to argue that newspapers have to cover the heck out of their local communities--so-called hyperlocalism--in order to win back readers and advertisers.

But what do you do when hyperlocalism doesn't work? The Wall Street Journal Wednesday has a (troubling, if you're in the newspaper business) look at The Washington Post's experiment in hyperlocalism, LoudounExtra.com. The site, despite a slick design and plenty of news about the goings on in Loudoun, an affluent Virginia county, has been a … Read more

Outside.in, a New York-based company that aggregates news and blog discussion around towns and neighborhoods, said Tuesday it has raised $3 million in venture funding and hired a new CEO, former About.com general manager Mark Josephson.

The new funding, which brings Outside.in's total capital raised to $5.4 million, comes from existing investors Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, Betaworks, and a number of angel investors led by George Crowley. A new investor, the New York City Investment Fund, also joined the round. Outside.in said it plans to use the cash infusion to focus on … Read more

Outside.in, a New York-based site that aggregates town-specific news, blog posts, and business listings into a sort of Local News 2.0, formally launched a discussion forum feature on Wednesday.

Thie move puts Outside.in more squarely in the league of Yelp and Craigslist, which supplement their respective business reviews and classifieds listings with lively local message boards.

Obviously, discussion boards don't mean anything if there isn't a solid base of users willing to contribute to them regularly. But there certainly are more than a few people who like to rant about their local school board, sidewalks … Read more

New York-based dude-about-town newsletter Thrillist--I've heard its founders describe it as "DailyCandy for guys," though the two are not affiliated--will be expanding further beyond its Gotham roots very soon. Today's edition of the morning read announced that sign-ups are now open for the upcoming Thrillist San Francisco list.

Presumably, it'll be like its existing Gotham and Los Angeles brethren: a mix of restaurant and bar picks with a distinct penchant for high-quality barbecue and stiff cocktails; edgy shopping picks (don't worry, boys, it's O.K. to look dashing); and the latest in … Read more