Please consider this a brief introduction to a new media buzzword that you’ll need to know in order to keep up with the changes. At Tanner Friedman, we’re on top of this trend and on this blog, we’ll share what we’re learning with you.
The word is “Hyperlocal.” And basically, it’s what we used to call “local” – but now it refers to online and very close to where you live or work. We’ll share examples as we get them, but the first is an emerging Web presence about to roll into the Detroit market, as it has in other regions across the country.
It’s called patch.com. It’s owned by AOL (remember them?) and it’s growing fast. To fill the void left behind by community newspapers and local bureaus of regional newspapers (not to mention feature and other reporting by TV and radio stations), community-branded websites will employ professional journalists to cover news in neighborhoods and within suburbs. We hear a team is already being assembled in Metro Detroit, filled with many veteran newspaper journalists ready, for some, to go back to their roots covering community news.
As the traditional TV newscast caricature might say, “Stay with the Tanner Friedman blog for continuing coverage and more details as they become available.” But, seriously, this has potential to help deliver the content news consumers still want but over a platform that fits their lives in the modern age. And remember the buzzword, you’ll hear it again – “Hyperlocal.”