Hyperlocal not likely in Australia

Thanks to Kristine Lowe I became aware that “hyperlocal” is a new publishing fad in Europe and North America. I’m yet to hear the phrase in Australia.

She writes that in Scandanavia, newspapers are running community web sites to build new revenue lost from falling circulation.

Here is an example of a site in Finland which has 60,000 unique visitors a week, building towards a target of 100,000.

The hyperlocal sites rely on user-generated content about day-to-day happenings that would not ordinarily make the grade as news.

The concept is interesting but I don’t think it has much potential in Australia.

Hyperlocal would logically work in communities that don’t have their own media. The examples given are suburbs and villages. Seemingly marginalised from their metropolitan mastheads, the communities still have significant populations by Australian standards.

Australian communities are generally well served by newspapers, including in capital city suburbs and regional towns.

These newspapers generally contribute to the community’s identity. In states such as Victoria, where local government underwent wholesale amalgamations, the newspapers remained local while the councils went regional.

In Australian country newspapers, the news is already hyperlocal to the extent that organisations submit reports that are generally printed without major edits.

Community web portals have not really taken off in Australia. Portals have been more successful when they have represented a theme such as sport or entertainment.

That’s not so say hyperlocal wouldn’t work in Australia, either in print or online. As communities grow or change there may be openings to advance the concept.

June 29, 2008 · Topics: , ,

Comments

2 Responses to “Hyperlocal not likely in Australia”

  1. Matt Collins on June 29th, 2008 10:28 pm

    One trend we’re seeing more of here in the UK, at least (as well as the more organised, commercial efforts of local newspapers that you rightly mention above), is a growing number of local blogs. Personally I think there’s a lot of potential for these to take over part of the role traditionally played by local newspapers.

  2. Fitzroyalty on August 8th, 2008 10:40 am

    The hyperlocal blog Fitzroyalty (about Fitzroy in Melbourne) has posted an article “the current status of hyperlocal media in Australia” that summarises the what is happening in hyperlocal media in Australia. I think hyperlocal has enormous potential here and everywhere. See http://indolentdandy.net/fitzroyalty/2008/08/08/hyperlocal-media-in-australia/

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