A Deeper Look at ‘Michele’s List’ of Independent Local News Sites Reveals a Gloomier Picture

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After taking a second, closer look at “Michele’s List,” I’m more worried about independent community news sites. I was surprised to see that more than half of them generate only $50,000 or less in revenue, hardly enough to run a “Ramen-noodle”-type operation.

Hyperlocal News App Blockfeed Takes Another Stab at Geo-Aggregation

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Hyperlocal news organizations can be necessarily limited by their neighborhood focus, but Blockfeed thinks local news has the potential to be far more viable, because the essential components — content, an audience, and advertisers — have already been brought together by geography.

Charlotte Agenda Carves Out Role as Brand Builder, Market Developer

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In April, online city guide Charlotte Agenda arrived onto a shifting Charlotte, N.C. digital scene. The site’s eclectic mix of five-to-ten quick-read, mobile-friendly stories and a distinctive conversational style of commentary is standing out among local media players eager to reach a young audience, but will it prove sustainable?

2015 ‘Michele’s List’ Shows Strengths — And Weaknesses — of ‘Indie’ News Sites

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There are encouraging and even bullish numbers in the performance of independent community news sites as reported in the 2015 “Michele’s List” survey. But other numbers indicate that “indies” are having a difficult time generating enough revenue to ensure stability.

McClatchy Says It’s a ‘Digital’ Company, but More Work Still Remains

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There is no doubt that McClatchy is putting an enormous amount of energy and talent into digital — but will it be enough when print is shrinking so rapidly? Street fight spoke to the company’s VP of products, marketing and promotion, Christian Hendricks, about where McClatchy is in its digital evolution

Local News Sites Need More Than Funding — They Need Vision

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Community news vet Steven Waldman has produced “Report for America,” a brisk blueprint to save what he calls “civically important” news. But if publishers are really going to save local news, they should work on deepening their focus on the demographic shifts in their communities…

The Connected Local Economy: A New Way to Understand Innovation in Local

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As a new generation of local technology companies approach the public markets, it’s critical for us to agree on what “local” actually means today — and how that differs from the its definition a decade ago.

Media Experts Huddle to Map a Plan for the Future of Digital News

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Digital news publishers — especially at the community level — are in a fight for survival. Last week, the RJI convened a one-day “leaders workshop” in Chicago that drew 29 representatives from different segments of the news industry. We caught up with several of the participants to hear about the conclusions they came to…

ARLnow Flips Bethesda Site, Expands Big Into Center of D.C.

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The independent community news network that has been busy expanding in the shadow of the Washington Post – has just executed some eye-grabbing moves. It 1.) sold its Bethesda Now site in suburban Maryland, 2.) bought a dormant three-neighborhood site in the District of Columbia and 3,) will resurrect and expand its acquisition…

Nextdoor Sports a Valuation Over $1B — But How Will It Make Money?

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For Nextdoor, a transactional model might explain some of the investors’ faith, and may provide a clear path to revenue growth than trying to untangle the knot that is local advertising…

How a Vermont Site Bested 2 Dailies and Weekly — 2 Years After Launch

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In the “Northeast Kingdom” of Vermont is Orleans County. Orleans has a population of only 27,169, but it is the location of a four-way competition among community news publishers — digital and pure play. The newest competitor is the pure-play independent Newport Dispatch, which, in less than two years, has captured the biggest digital audience in Orleans…

Street Fight Daily: Wal-Mart Ditches Google, Legacy Media Still Owns News

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google, Wal-Mart Part Ways Over Local Shopping Ads (Wall Street Journal)… New Pew Report: In Cities Big And Small, Readers Still Rely On Traditional Media For Local News (Nieman Lab)… Vistar, Instantly Partner For OOH Measurement (MediaPost)…

Local Media Companies Now Need a Digital Business to Survive

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For years, the traditional businesses have generated the majority of revenue, leaving some executives to drag their feet. But now, the door for legacy business to exit the market is closing and the conversations about the digital transition have become increasingly existential.

What Programmatic Advertising Means for Local Media

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Street Fight caught up with Frost Prioleau, chief executive officer at Simplifi, a Dallas-based programmatic advertising platform that specializes in localized campaigns, to talk about what programmatic advertising means for local marketers…

Community News and the Long Game: An ‘Indie’ Makes a Case for the ‘One-Off’

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Community news has a decade-plus of digital publishing experience, but it’s not yet clear which kind of community platforms will be winners. New Canaanite founder Michael Dinan has many perspectives on the issue…

Borrell on Local News: Inform, but Help Businesses Thrive

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“We can certainly view people who frequent hyperlocal news sites as ‘readers’ who are there for the content. But once we begin to realize that they are likely to be buy something that day, tomorrow, or next week, then we begin understanding the real value of that audience,” says the CEO of Borrell Associates…

Why a Former Gawker Editor Is Pushing Local News to National Audiences

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We recently caught up with Ratter founder A.J. Daulerio to talk about making local stories into national news, “building a tabloid about city while acknowledging the internet as the neighborhood,” and how he plans to avoid Patch’s missteps…

How Iowa’s Gazette Is Working to Make Deep-Dive Local Journalism Sustainable

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Display ads, even successfully targeted ones, aren’t likely to pay for the resources that go into The Gazette’s innovative journalism, where packages can take weeks or months to produce. As a result, sponsorships and memberships are the focus…

Community Publishers Mixed on Borrell Prescription for Content

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Gordon Borrell minced no words in Street Fight recently when he talked about content and audience in the revenue-hot digital space that his new annual local media report pinpoints. He said: “It’s so much not about readers. It’s so much more about consumers. So those folks who are trying to develop hyperlocal sites around good […]

Can an ‘Exchange’ Help Solve the Problem of Monetizing Digital News?

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Bill Densmore, a consulting fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, sees a way out of this crisis in monetizing digital news and is assembling a diverse group of experts to consider an industry-backed, collaborative effort to lead the way forward…