Local reality is often what people are most interested in and big papers and media outlets are not always able to satisfy communities' needs and desire for local information, as they don't have enough resources and/or time to dedicate to all stories.

That's why new actors are increasingly filling the gap more and more. There are locally-focused non-profits, new local news sites as well as news projects born from partnerships between established media outlets and universities, non-profits or small local or hyperlocal news sites.

Amongst the most innovative jornalism schools partnerships with big-names media outlets in local contexts, MediaBistro listed the just-launched Reporting Texas, of the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin, which shares content with two Austin media outlets, KUT90.5, Austin's NPR affiliate, and The Austin American-Statesman.

Another J-school forming a partnership with famous news outlet is The City University of New York which began a collaboration with The New York Times for its Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Local blog. And again with The New York Times, NYU's Journalism Institute is running the hyperlocal blog focused on Manhattan's East Village, The Local - East Village.
Lauren Rabaino on MediaBistro's 10,000 Words asked Tracey Taylor, co-founder of Berkeley's news startup, Berkeleyside, how to start your own news organization.

Founded in 2009 as more or less as an hobby by former editors and writers, the site is run on the WordPress platform and currently has 117,660 unique visitors monthly, the article reported. It is funded mainly by advertising (but a membership revenue is going to be introduced) and after 18 months, founders are starting to pay themselves a modest salary.

"Although Berkeley is a dynamic, good-sized city (pop 112,000), with a world-class university and a highly educated demographic, the city had limited dedicated news sources before Berkeleyside. A local weekly newspaper folded its print edition shortly after Berkeleyside launched; the UC Berkeley student paper, The Daily Californian, covers some city news, but not comprehensively; and local media such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News cover Berkeley stories only sporadically", Taylor said.

The Berkeleyside iPhone app calls for user contributions by allowing community members to submit photos from the scene of news events. At least a third of the stories are the results of tip-offs from readers, Taylor said.

Letting users contribute by submitting photos and content is probably one of the best ways for local sites to involve their readers.

For example, partnering with San Jose State University, the app Tackable publishes the student newspaper the Spartan Daily, which allows people who have signed up to submit photos and captions, which will be geotagged and presented on a map within the app and on the Web.

The top 3 tips to start an independent news site in your own community? Do it your way, keep it clean and be transparent, Taylor concluded.

Source: 10,000 Words - MediaBistro (1), (2)