UK: Yorkshire Evening Post and KM Group roll out new hyperlocal sites

Meanwhile, KM Group has set up the site SittingbourneMessenger.co.uk to serve Kent and the surrounding villages. The site will carry content from the subscription-based Sittingbourne Messenger as well as the free Sittingbourne Extra titles. This is not the publisher's first foray into hyperlocal; KM Group operates 13 web sites, several of which offer community-specific news.

These sites join a growing collection of web-based community news services in the UK. In April, the CN Group (publishers of the Cumberland News) and Newsquest's Brighton Argus launched hyperlocal sites and community pages.

Across the Atlantic, sites like VoiceofSanDiego.org have sprung up to cover what some editors see as topics that have been neglected by traditional news services. In an extreme example of the hyperlocal boom, the town of Maplewood, New Jersey, now boasts four news sites, including The New York Times' blog the Local.

Some traditional journalists have shunned hyperlocal outlets, arguing that the practice of using citizen journalists could compromise quality control and journalistic oversight. The fact that these sites tend to be funded by grants leads to the question of what will become of them once the money runs out.

However, the potential for high specialized news on the web is great as an informational tool and also as a means for advertisers to target a very specific audience.

Whether this is a passing trend or the future of journalism remains to be seen.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk