The New York Times and Fwix partner to further hyperlocal efforts

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 18, 2010 at 11:41 AM

The New York Times' hyperlocal efforts will soon be supplemented by its new partnership with newswire Fwix.

Created 2 years ago by then-21-year-old Darian Shirazi, Fwix's CEO and founder, the newswire relies on a number of sophisticated search algorithms that pull together news articles and blog posts related to a certain area from across the web. Fwix programmers also select local news sources and blogs to watch for relevant items to aggregate.

This allows for articles on the web to offer readers a series of related links pertaining to news from around that area. A reader of an article about robberies in New York city's Chelsea neighborhood could theoretically be guided to further articles about Chelsea using Fwix's software.

Additionally, Fwix set up an iPhone application this previous summer that allows users to submit news items and photos from the field, making citizen journalism accessible to virtually anyone with an iPhone.

Fwix serves 175 markets in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but the New York Times has licensed the program for use over its Regional Media Group publications, which includes 15 local newspapers throughout the U.S. Shirazi considers the for-profit agreement to be a nod of approval from the Times towards innovative web technology.

"This is a vote of confidence in our technology and our unique offering to news companies," he said.

Sources: PaidContent, The New York Times