Many startups such as Local Edition and Backyard Post are attempting to claim the "hyperlocal" news market. OurTown is the newest player, which boasts 70,000 hyperlocal websites across the country. George Blake, former editor and 20 year veteran of the Cincinnati Enquirer is now chief news officer for OurTown.

Blake believes that the best definition of "hard news" is the news "most important to your readers." Thus, editors must discover what people want to read and respond accordingly: if people want local entertainment and activities, provide a community calendar, if people want school, church, kids sports news, provide links to their specific-interest site. There will also be chat rooms for people to discuss local issues, according to Blake. He hopes that this very local content will distinguish OurTown from bigger local sites such as Yelp.

"You want to know about the local festival 10 minutes from your home, not the one 50 miles away," said Blake. " When you go to your OurTown website, you will read stories about places and people you recognize in your community."

Local editors, who are from the community they represent, oversee the content of their sites and keep almost all of their local ad revenue, which Blake hopes to be enough incentive for them to make their site "the best it can be." Editors will also receive help from an advisory board of journalists and will receive updates on what is working and what can be done to make the sites better. Their licenses can be pulled if the site is not regularly updated or contains inappropriate content.

Blake hopes that OurTown websites will attract local advertisers who want to build close-to-home businesses. "Unlike the daily newspaper that needs to sell the $100,000 ad contract, OurTown editors can sell $100-a-month contracts and create significant income," he said.

OurTown is marketing through "word of mouth" and through sites like Google, Yahoo, Craigslist.

Blake stated that while OurTown does not plan on becoming a social networking site, it will connect people with common interests and common goals.

"Everyone will be able to go on their OurTown site to see what all those sirens were about last night, or if their neighbor's kid threw the winning pitch in that little league game," Blake said.

Source: OJR through David Black