Blog Local: Lifting the lid on your local community
Posted: October 8th, 2009 | Author: Ed Walker | Filed under: blogging, ideas, Journalism, web | Tags: #tal09, blog local, blog preston, citizen journalism, community journalism, community journalists, community media, hyperlocal blogging, hyperlocal media, local media, talk about local, talk about local unconference, wordpress | 1 Comment »
At the Talk About Local Unconference there was a lot of talk about creating a network of hyperlocal blogs. Talk About Local are doing a superb job of getting people started in blogging for their local community – but what about those people already underway or who have bigger aspirations?
I have learned through working on Blog Preston since January 2009 that there is a real thirst for community content about the place where you live. The local media is fixated on scandal, car crashes and the like and misses the community content. There is a real space and it needs to be filled.
The Talk About Local Unconference has convinced me that Blog Local can work. Our idea is to create a network of local blogs, some of them will be created under the ‘Blog [insert location]‘ brand and we will support these centrally with technical help and guidance on creating good and interesting community content. Others will be established blogs that are already happy with their technical stuff and their content, but would like to opt in to a wider network of local blogs.
We would use the powerful WordPress Multi-user platform to create this network, and be able to create powerful plug-ins for local blogs that deliver relevant local information. One thing we’ve learned from the failure of local media groups at trying to fit standard templates is that it doesn’t work, Blackpool is different to Preston, Preston is different to Harrogate and Harrogate is different to Southampton. Each of them has a different audience the the website for the ‘Blog [insert location]‘ site needs to reflect that and it also needs to take into account the skills of the person updating it. If they are better with a camera than they are with words, it needs to be more of a photojournalism blog. If they can’t take a good picture to save their life, it’s more of a wordy affair but with a design that compensates for this and keeps it interesting.
One of the struggles for anyone running a local blog is content. Not everyone who starts or wants to start up a community blog is a recent journalism graduate or unemployed graduate. They don’t have the legal training, they don’t know how to knock out 250 words into 10 minutes and they don’t often know where to look for stories. Often local blogs wither and die after a few months when they think there’s nothing left to write about. Wrong. There is always information, events, opinion, gossip, news, photos, in your local area – you just need to build a network and tap into it. Blog Local will support its network to do this and to keep producing good content.
Add to this that Blog Local is not-for-profit, so the content is driven by the community and not by shareholders and it creates an interesting concept. Taking the new technology and tools available to create a mix-mash of community blogs across the UK, producing local content and information.
Is there a business model in this? I’m not 100 per cent sure yet but I do know that over the next few months we’re going to be working with some very exciting new people to help create a network of local and community blogs that can help lift the lid on their local communities.
Image credit to Aishihik
Hi Ed – I agree with what you’re saying about local blogs. I think that people are just as interested in the small things that have happened near them – a new pavement being tarmaced, a shop opening etc – as they are with headline grabbing stories.
I’ve worked on national newspaper for over a year and written exclusives and scandals. They’re great fun – but sometimes these stories – particulary in local papers – can be overcooked until they become meaningless drivel written in a forced tongue that distances the reader.
Ultra-local news which is understated and ”boring” will always be interesting to those people who come into contact with it regularly – however small that number of people is. This will also have no significance to people outside the area. It will only be valid for a small handful of people. This goes against all the business principles of current leading media organisations.
I think that thiere’s lots of potential for this to grow in the coming years. But I struggle to see how large media organisations can monopolise local blogs when the best thing about local blogs – like blogpreston – is that they are small, independent and unique, written by residents.
I think that another problem is the content. Young graduates are now more than ever they are relocating to new cities, travelling and partying. The last thing on their minds are things like the local bridge club having a new paint job.
The people who will read and write the blogs are slighlty older generations who are settled in the area. But they are also the ones with limited technical expertise and, like you said, writing training.
I definitely think that ultra-local blogs that are concerned with minute goings-on will flourish in one form or another.