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Hyperlocal pioneer urges journalists to set up their own news websites

DavidPriorA freelancer behind an award-winning hyperlocal news website is calling on journalists to set up their own with his new venture.

David Prior, who founded Altrincham Today, has now set up Hyperlocal Today, a new mobile-first platform which he is licensing to journalists who want to launch their own hyperlocal publishing business.

Launched in August 2014, Altrincham Today claims 80,000 unique visitors and 450,000 views a month, as well as a combined social media community of over 11,000, despite only serving a town with an official population of 45,000.

Last week it was named startup of the year at the Altrincham & Sale Chamber of Commerce awards and is the only hyperlocal site to receive a nomination in next month’s O2 Media North West awards.

Said David, pictured: “Altrincham Today was borne out of frustration at the way my home town was being covered by the established local press – they were barely scraping the surface of what was really going on.

“With the bigger publishers still very much engaged in adjusting to the challenges of digital-first publishing, I believe there is a glaring opportunity for skilled, remote and entrepreneurial journalists to claim the ground and establish themselves as the leading hub of news and information in their particular town.

“Our licensing model allows them to do that very easily – we take care of the site design, graphic design, hosting, technical support and everything else that can be time-consuming and unpredictable, while they take care of the content and community-building on the ground.”

David is inviting journalists with at least 10 hours’ availability a week to contact him for an informal chat about a project in their area.

He added: “Hyperlocal is I believe the future of local news, something that the BBC for instance is beginning to realise.

“Advertisers are also starting to recognise that at a hyperlocal level, readers can act upon an advert or an article very quickly because they’re likely to live only a few minutes from that business.”

17 comments

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  • November 2, 2015 at 8:24 am
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    Good luck to David on this venture.
    with the way people acess news nowadays the era of the printed local weekly or daily is coming to a swift end as the ongoing huge copy sales and ad revenue losses indicate,and much quicker than many of us old hands first thouight,so this kind of new media,hyper local site gives great opportunity for regional journalists to do what theyre best at without any of the internal politics,presures from above and constant changed priorities that many are now working under.
    The opportunities are there at the very local level,with so many papers now being merged and bundled into ones covering a much larger territory thus losing the local appeal that made them popular in the first place,this gives journalists ( and the more proactive commercial people,or a combination of both) the chance to cover the grass roots detail which people like to read about,areas the “big boys” cant or dont cover due to lack of resources (and also lack of interest) meaning 2-3 sites could easily be sustained in a relatively local area,with additional opportunities to work together on the news coverage or ad sales between neighbouring sites.
    Advetisers are likely to support it as the rates will be low due to size of area coverage,but with the advantage of the audience being very local people and thus likely to respond.
    The success of any new venture needs awareness,good content and a gap in the market, plus financial viability with commercial support or funding so hopefully David has all this in hand,in which case i am sure that more and more journalists will soon be launching similar sites on their patches.
    Good luck again David

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  • November 2, 2015 at 8:45 am
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    This looks excellent, though I’d like to see the financial numbers on this project rather than just the infeasibly huge ones for “unique visitors” etc. What does David get by way of a “salary” – £20-£30k pa? Less? More? I think we should be told.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 9:19 am
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    Many thanks Brian for your positive comments – and would agree that one of the particular benefits of this kind of model is its ability to let journalists get on with the content without any of the interference from above. I definitely believe there’s currently a major opportunity at a time when the appetite for local news has – in my opinion – never been stronger.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 9:38 am
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    Dick – thanks for your comment. This is aimed primarily at freelance journalists initially, or at least journalists who can commit at least 10 hours a week, so salary is probably not the most useful benchmark. What I would say though is that I’ve comfortably managed and edited my own hyperlocal (Altrincham Today) with around that amount of time spare each week (I also edit another separate site), and that the response from local advertisers – and the ability of the site to generate revenue – has been really encouraging, hence my desire to roll it out. There is also nothing stopping journalists with more time available from setting up separate hyperlocal sites in neighbouring villages and towns, thereby scaling up the commercial potential of their content.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 10:10 am
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    Thanks for the reply, David. Yep, this is the way reporting local news will go and though this model may not work everywhere at least these outfits won’t be burdened with obscenely overpaid executives who contribute nothing useful to businesses, pension deficits, legacies of debt and property, etc. Give me a choice between David’s model and the recent amalgamation of trundling dinosaurs Trinity Mirror and Local World (which is what it was, sadly) and I’m the Hyperlocal Kid every time.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 10:47 am
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    Best of luck. I’m with this all the way. Hyperlocals are the future in the regional media, not these corporate newspaper monopolies that corner 30 per cent of the action.
    Advertisers need to get behind hyperlocals because they get a fairer service.
    Journalists need to get behind hyperlocals because diversity gives them more employment opportunities.
    Communities need to get behind hyperlocals because they are genuinely local and support parish issues better than syndicated trash cans formulated in LA or someplace.
    Hyperlocals need protecting by legislation in the interests of democracy, ie no VAT on adverts, training schemes, lower business rates etc.
    The BBC enjoys charter status so something similar is needed for regional media. The Beeb is far from perfect, but nothing will ever be completely impartial.
    Media people are too busy moaning about their own patch. They fail to see the bigger picture. That must change.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 1:28 pm
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    …and i forgot: Hypers need their own association to focus their needs nationally like the Newspaper Publishers’ Association used to (is it still going?).

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  • November 2, 2015 at 4:10 pm
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    Sounds like a great idea – would it apply in Ireland?
    Cheers

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  • November 2, 2015 at 4:49 pm
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    Best of luck with your venture, David.

    Just don’t sell up when Ashley & Co come a-knockin’.

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  • November 2, 2015 at 11:12 pm
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    Is there a website link you could post with more information about the licensing idea and set up costs etc. Cheers

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  • November 3, 2015 at 10:43 am
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    Myself and two journo colleagues had a very similar idea with The Natter website a few years back. Getting the hits up was easy, but generating revenue was very difficult. At one point I was writing/selling and working ridiculous hours to try and make it work. But I had to give up in the end. I wish David well, but the issue is always making it work financially.

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  • November 3, 2015 at 1:19 pm
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    As Brian mentioned the commercial funding is vital to make s site such as this viable and not a pipe dream or hobby that quickly runs out of steam as Diane had spoken of
    There are enough disgruntled yet talented commercial people either cast aside by the regionals or going through the motions and looking to leave( there are where I work anyway) to be able to get one of them on board to work the commercial side.
    A good idea which if planned properly to include sustainable ad revenues will surely be a success and give local people access to the kind of news views and comments at a level no longer provided.
    Good luck David and all who follow his lead

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  • November 3, 2015 at 2:33 pm
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    I’m wondering where the content comes from and the quality of it if someone is working ten hours a week to produce this.

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  • November 3, 2015 at 5:25 pm
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    I started a local news online website in June 1998:

    http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk

    The site and business has prospered and is still going strong:

    http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/local/advertising/statistics

    …and supporting half a dozen good quality jobs (accredited Living Wage employer).

    The difficulty for journalists trying to emulate this is not content, that after all is a journalists forte, rather the problem is attracting sustainable sources of revenue.

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  • November 3, 2015 at 8:41 pm
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    All of these start ups need a proper professional local sales person to work in partnership ,on commission maybe ,with good local contacts, credibility and the nous to find potential advertisers long term, this will only be possible if the site can deliver a hyper local but ‘ essential’ news service enough to make people come back time and again and a guaranteed local audience of potential customers for the advertisers supporting the site, in many ways the commercial person is key to the sites sustainability, without proper and planned funding the good idea soon becomes a memory

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