On the surface, the financial figures out of local UK papers would seem to spell out their eventual demise. However, certain local papers seem to be defying the trend, thanks in large part by their new online ventures.

A prime example comes out of the small town of Market Rasen, which held the media's attention last week following the area's biggest earthquake in 24 years. The editor of The Mail, the Market Rasen paper, was out of town, but its one- and only- freelancer Adrian Tuplin went to do interviews and take photographs. By morning the paper's website had a photo gallery, two videos, and catalog of emailed-in stories about the earthquake. Online traffic jumped accordingly.    

These local papers are succeeding also by focusing intently on issues that are important within a given community. Editor Peter Greenwood of Craven Herald in Skipton saw online traffic jump by five times thanks to coverage of a controversy over a proposed rock festival, according to The Guardian.  

"We've followed this controversy minutely and people lap up every word," says Greenwood, scrolling through 83 comments on the latest installment.

Bigger players in the field are also pursuing what they call the "granular layer" of readers, meaning that they are introducing "hyperlocal" papers in smaller markets than ever before. Case in point: Trinty Mirror's on Teesside launched 16 free titles last year with content "reverse-published" from 20 websites, each based exclusively on a specific postcode, reports The Guardian. In another local push, Trinity also lauched five micro-citizen journalism sites on The Teesside Gazette last year. were

According to The Times, Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror for the past five years, sees local and digital initatives as a potential saving grace for The Mirror, which is behind both The Sun and The Mail in circulation, and is losing ground to current fourth place publication Metro.

The value of hyperlocal is also evident in the BBC's new push for an "ultra local" broadcasting system, which has prompted the outrage of local papers throughout the UK.

Source: guardian.co.uk, Times Online