‘Indie’ Hyperlocals Share Their Secrets to Sustainability
“Content remains king. So long as you don’t lose sight of that, much of the rest falls into place,” said Sheepshead Bites editor and publisher Ned Berke. “But, content doesn’t pay the bills, so we’re always looking at ways to improve the services we offer to merchant partners and other revenue opportunities…”
With Offbeat Features, Hyperlocals Can Spark Better Engagement
Maybe hyperlocal news sites should take a look at the old Life magazine formula, and see how they could adapt it to their news mix. I’m not saying that local sites should start running pinups. But a steady diet of stories about school budget hearings and local festivals aren’t enough. Why not spice up the homepage with more local feature content — especially stories that have strong visuals…
Sheepshead Bites Editor Reveals the Secrets to His Hyperlocal Success
“Local doesn’t scale,” says Ned Berke. “That’s the line, right? And as easy as it is to fall back on that, it is the truth. It really doesn’t. You can’t use a template for a small town in Utah, put it down in the middle of Brooklyn, and have it work. … I do think that the old model of giant newsrooms for communities is gone. I don’t think it’s doable. But I don’t think it’s necessary, either.”
Sheepshead Bites Founder: If You Meet the Market’s Needs, It’ll Meet Yours
Event sponsorships are becoming a double-digit percentage of revenue among some news sites in local digital. At independent hyperlocal news site Sheepshead Bites in Southern Brooklyn, publisher Ned Berke looks at event sponsorships from a wider perspective as he explains in this Q & A on how his six-year-old site is performing…