Local newspapers' crisis: what hyperlocal means, and why it works

The Guardian reporting:
Today's extract from What do we mean by local?* is by Ross Hawkes, the founder of the hyperlocal news website Lichfield Live. He is also a senior journalism lecturer at Staffordshire university.
He argues that journalists working for traditional "big media", through a culture of centralisation, have become too remote from their audiences...
Patch reporters in the true sense of the word are a dying breed. Gone are those who are known by everyone who is anyone in their local area with a finger firmly on the community's pulse...
If you do not have your ear to the ground how can you accurately represent the views of the community?
That is not to say there is a need for a physical newsroom in the centre of a patch, thanks mainly to the tools that now allow the journalist to set
up a newsroom anywhere... But utilising this technology requires something that is not readily found in the modern newsroom – trust...
News is still the central ingredient in a media business but the difficulty lies getting bodies on the ground in an affordable way... The rise of the hyperlocal publishers has been testament to the opportunities being presented to those with an understanding of the modern, digital community.
One of the accusations regularly levelled at hyperlocal publishers is that no-one is making significant money from them yet. While this may be true, positive signs are there...
Part of the growth and perceived success of the new hyperlocal movement is down to passion and knowledge for the communities they serve – and recognising that "local" is no longer a catch-all term.
The idea of "community" cannot even be described as a purely geographic phenomenon, with many people having a greater empathy and connection to an online social group than to their physical neighbours.
The emotional connection between audience and publisher is particularly important in a society that is used to choice and being able to interact with their media, be it through phone votes, Twitter hashtags or red-button offerings.
For many of the successful hyperlocal sites, the "one of us" mentality and the open nature of the work has been crucial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/may/21/hyperlocal-media-local-newspapers?utm_source=Street+Fight+List&utm_campaign=df1796f3a7-Street_Fight_Daily5_22_2012&utm_medium=email