The document discusses the crisis in local news due to declining print advertising revenues and the rise of alternative advertising markets online. This has led to staffing cuts and falling circulation at newspapers. Hyperlocal news sites aim to provide community-oriented local coverage to replace some of what has been lost from mainstream newspapers. However, hyperlocal sites have limited scale and scope and have not found sustainable business models, so they can only play a minor role in replacing the news gathering capacity of newspapers. More coverage of local community events and politics is provided, but coverage lacks diversity of perspectives in many cases.
1. The crisis in local news, and what
community journalism can do to
help…
(#HerefordHyperlocal)
Andy Williams (Cardiff University,
@llantwit)
2. The Crisis in Local News
• Newspapers have traditionally made money 2 ways:
– By selling news to us (a bit)…
– (But mainly) by selling our eyeballs to advertisers.
• But since the rise of the internet, we don’t want to pay
upfront for news any more, and advertisers have found
more lucrative markets (social media, search, etc)
3. The scariest
graph you’ll
see today
Source:
PaidContent.Org
http://paidconte
nt.org/2013/04/1
1/two-charts-
that-tell-you-
everything-you-
need-to-know-
about-the-future-
of-newspapers/
4. Print Versus Digital Advertising Revenue
at Trinity Mirror Regionals Division
Source: Trinity Mirror Annual Accounts 2003-2010
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Print
£'000
Digital
£'000
000
000
6. Why does this matter? Staffing
Levels at Media Wales, 1999-2010
Source: Media Wales Annual Accounts 2000-2010
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Editorial and
Production
Sales and
Distribution
Admin
7. Why does this matter? Falling
circulation at the Western Mail
Source: 6 monthly ABC circulation figures 2000-2011
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
8. Why does this matter? News and democracy
• For most of the last century
the democratic functions of
journalism were subsidised
by commercial advertising.
• This subsidy has now been
completely withdrawn in
some places, and in others it
is in the process of
disappearing.
• Without someone to pay for
these we’ll get less (and
poorer quality)
information, and less
“I’m doing fine, but Clark
Kent can’t find a newspaper
that’s hiring”
9. Hyperlocal news to the rescue?
But… the web has enabled a
new generation of
community-oriented news
outlets producing
“hyperlocal” news, which in
the UK is little-understood
but attracting sustained
interest from the news
industry and policy makers.
Can it replace local
mainstream news media?
10. Consumption of Local News in the UK
Source: Communications Market Review, OFCOM 2012
11. The value of hyperlocal:
What gets covered?
n=1941
Top topics Freq. %
Community 252 13.0
Politics
(Government)
227 11.7
Sport 224 11.5
Crime/Legal
(Individual)
134 6.9
Business/ Industry 133 6.9
Environment/
Nature
109 5.6
Entertainment/
Leisure
98 5.0
• Geographically-
focused, community-
oriented form of local
news… local clubs,
societies, leisure time
activities covered
regularly
• Lots of coverage of
local politics – which is
declining in mainstream
press
• Very little coverage of
local political activism
12. The value of hyperlocal: Who gets to speak?
n=1873
Top Sources Freq %
Local Politics 392 20.9
Business/
Commercial
268 14.3
Member of
Public
233 12.4
Community
Group
133 7.1
Police 114 6.1
Sportsperson 106 5.7
Culture/ Arts 102 5.4
• Some similarities with, and
some differences from, the
commercial local press…
• Official sources in local
politics, business, the police
are still very important
source groups…
• But there’s much more of a
voice for local people
(members of the public,
members of groups, clubs,
and societies, etc).
13. The value of hyperlocal: a plurality of
perspectives?
• The number of sources cited was
quite low (only around half of
posts rely on sources, & only
around a fifth cite more than one
source)
• When secondary sources were
cited, it was mostly to convey
agreement, or to add context
• Disagreement between sources
was only found in 3% of posts
• Could have implications for:
transparency, plurality, and the
quality of local public debate
14. Can hyperlocal news dig us out
of the local news hole?
• Content: community news can play
valuable role in providing us with news
about local community/cultural life and
important local political issues
• Audiences: are significant, and seem to
be growing (OFCOM data)
• Scale & Scope: in terms of replacing the
news gathering & reporting capacity
we’ve lost, community news is an
important, but minor, player
• Sustainability: more research
needed, but still no widespread business
models.
• Legitimacy: Hyperlocals often lack
institutional clout needed to produce
