By Steven Wise
Hyperlocal journalism is a concept that has struggled for more than a decade to prove its viability as a profitable business model. Yet the potential for citizen-driven news continues to inspire new efforts in the space.
‘The magic of hyperlocal sites,’ according to Mark Potts, founder of the pioneering Backfence.com, ‘is that they provide a forum for community members to share and discuss what’s going on around town.’
Pott’s site shut down in 2007, two years after launch, joining a list of early hyperlocal content casualties that includes the demise of CitySearch and Microsoft Sidewalk in the 1990s. After so many flame-outs, the 2013 collapse of the much-heralded hyperlocal content site Patch.com may have come as no surprise to many. What’s truly remarkable is, after downsizing and retooling, Patch is back and becoming an example of how hyperlocal content can work.
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