In the spring of 2012, Journatic, the for-hire community news shop, was a hot property in the hyperlocal industry. But less than three months later, following a report on "This American Life" about Journatic's practices, Tribune and several other publishers suspended all work by the local news company. Tribune has resumed some use of Journatic's work since, and I recently went to the company's new VP of media services, Hanke Gratteau, to find out more about how the service was faring...

With local merchants looking at more and more digital marketing options in their search for customers, community news sites have to be aggressive in selling themselves to potential advertisers (and raising revenue that will pay for editorial and other improvements). How can they make the most of their traffic numbers, which are much lower than those at most commerce-based sites?

For answers, I went to Julie Brooks, CEO of eCape.com, who went into and then out of, an ambitious program of agency-like marketing services; Mike Orren, president of the new marketing service firm Speakeasy, which he co-founded with the Dallas Morning News; and Carll Tucker, CEO of Daily Voice, who is considering expansion of marketing services it offers.

In looking at the categories of ad revenue, Borrell found that displays ads, which have taken a lot of heat in the industry for their supposed increasing irrelevance,, remain the dominant choice of businesses. But targeted display has moved ahead of run-of-site display, and targeted's rate of growth is far higher...

The grand, this-is-where-we’re-going commitment at the Journalism That Matters meeting held last week in Denver was encouraging. Local journalism needs this re-invention of what it does and how it relates to a newly empowered public that is outgrowing its old role as a passive consumer of news. I hope, though, that JTM members will also make “investigating new economic models” an important part of the new news ecology they’re creating.

There’s a saying that’s echoing more insistently today in hyperlocal publishing: “Don’t compete – collaborate.” Editor and publisher Susan Mernit puts that saying into practice at Oakland Local, partnering with other media and non-profits to juice content, build visibility, and generate revenue...

Local publishers have long served their communities by shining a light on municipal issues until the folks at City Hall take notice and fill in those dangerous potholes. But in the past few years we've also seen several startups pop up that want to make an even more direct connection between citizens' complaints and government action...

The neighborhood-centric news site has created a guide that lets users zoom in and out so they can get the nitty-gritty about specific schools and compare it to other schools throughout New York City. The way the design uses dots and arrows to retrieve many pages of articles is a singular achievement in user-friendliness...

With the recent push toward "native" advertising, we've learned (if we hadn't known already) that ads can be "news." In terms of local information value, ads-as-news may never trump the apartment-house fire that leaves several families homeless — but it has become clear that there’s room for both, especially in the local digital space...

Faced with uneasy investors and a cash burn of $500,000 a month, the company's founder Carll Tucker wondered last weekend: “Is this it?” But after 48 hours of number crunching, Tucker finally came up with a one-page document that he was convinced would be Daily Voice's passport to a secure future...