One especially interesting part of the conference was the kickoff dinner on Thursday evening, when McLellan and Rosen did a roll call of the attendees, asking each one to stand up and sum up what they wanted to learn while they were there, and what lessons they thought they could share. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the most common skill they said they could share was “collaboration,” and what they most wanted to learn about was “money.” One publisher after another stood up and said a variation of “I’ve figured out how to do this, but I don’t know how to make it last.”
Although the spirit of the conference was overwhelmingly positive and inspirational, there was just one tense moment when someone said that she came to the conference to see what other publishers thought about AOL’s quickly expanding hyperlocal network Patch, and whether they, too, felt threatened. (Someone from the next table over hissed at the mention.) It was unclear whether she knew that representatives from both Patch and Yahoo were present; they hadn’t been included in McLellan and Rosen’s roll call. But when they got all the way through the alphabetical list, after Brad Flora of Windy Citizen had graciously welcomed everyone to Chicago, a spontaneous shout came from a table in the center of the room: “Why doesn’t Patch stand up and tell us what we can learn from them?”
Tim Windsor, a regional editor at Patch, was a good sport: “I want to learn about how to do a better job of listening to our communities…and I think what I can try to share is some of our thoughts about how we can carry journalism forward into the twenty-first century, how we can make it a sustainable business.” Anthony Moor from Yahoo was next: “I’m here to learn how you guys are making this happen, and what you need,” he said. “Yahoo is in sort of an exploratory mode about local news, and we’re really not sure what we’re going to do, so we’re here to learn. And what I can share, I hope, is the largest website on the Internet. So I think we know something about gathering audiences.”
The prevailing concerns expressed at the outset of the conference (money and corporate takeover) weren’t universal, however. One woman shook her head when talk at the dinner table strayed too long on the question of money, saying quietly to me, “I’m so tired of people asking me about my site’s ‘sustainability.’ It’s such a conversation killer for me. It would be like my giving birth to my daughter and then immediately asking her how she planned on feeding herself.” At another point during the dinner, the man on the other side of me leaned over and whispered, “What’s Patch?”
I'm not sure what to think about the guy at your table who had never heard of Patch. If he was from a market they haven't penetrated yet, maybe that's acceptable. Even so, it belies a remarkable lack of competitive intelligence. Talk to anyone else starting a small business and they know everyone who's in their market, everyone considering entering their market, etc., etc. I have so much admiration for the operators of these sites and I wish them all great success. But at the same time, I worry that they're not running these ventures with their eyes fully open.
#1 Posted by Anna Tarkov, CJR on Tue 28 Sep 2010 at 02:00 PM
Eyes Wide Open
LocallyGrownNews.com was represented at Block by Block and I, for one, am going into this venture with my eyes wide open. There are avenues beyond advertising that are possible revenue streams that were not discussed at the conference. If anyone thinks that advertising is the sole driver or the holy grail of hyperlocal operators, they will be sadly disappointed.
Being a hyperlocal operator is a hustle. I sat in one breakout, designing and editing my email newsletter, because no one back home was going to deliver it on time to my subscribers and users. Others were multitasking as well, trying to be there at the conference, but trying to absorb the knowledge as well.
I am being diligent and innovative in leaving no stone unturned -- foundations, investors, friends, sponsorships, advertising, consulting, trade/barter, whatever should be on the table for revenue streams. A more productive conversation might be where efforts might yield best results...and percentage of time spent on each.
Also, there wasn't much conversation about content sharing -- perhaps because many of the hyperlocals are focused on filling a news and information niche that cannot be shared beyond their geographic region. But additional content could bring additional revenue...if available in a way and at a cost that could be attractive. Let's start that conversation as well.
Finally, I was surprised at the lack of ethnic diversity in the room. While ethnicity is not always apparent at first glance, much of the room represented voices that have been well represented in traditional media.
Michelle Ferrier
Proprietor
LocallyGrownNews.com
#2 Posted by Michelle Ferrier, CJR on Tue 28 Sep 2010 at 06:16 PM
Love em or hate em, Patch is one of the more potent threats to local media to date. Will they succeed? Who knows? But the one thing they will certainly do is inflict pain on the local media incumbents, forcing some to eventually throw in the towel. Patch could easily play a waiting game similar to when a Wal-Mart sells items at a loss in order to vaporize the small shop owner...full post here: http://bit.ly/bVwuX2
#3 Posted by Mel Taylor, CJR on Wed 29 Sep 2010 at 09:06 AM
Michelle, the diversity problem is indeed a problem. I'm sure you know that this is spillover from the traditional newsrooms. The racial and gender uniformity have followed us into this brave new world of digital media. I'm not sure I have the answers to what can be done about that, but I'd love to see progress in this area.
That's a great point about content sharing. I think that could absolutely work with some of the sites that were in the room. There was talk of ad networks, but not content networks. Perhaps this is something that can be discussed at the next conference or in the interim.
#4 Posted by Anna Tarkov, CJR on Wed 29 Sep 2010 at 09:10 AM
I don't know how bad Patch really is. My 35-year-old hometown newspaper closed and we were without any local news source for a while. Then a couple months later Patch came to town. They hired the former newspaper staff, who wouldn't have had jobs in journalism otherwise. Plus they were already familiar with the community. Win-win here.
So many of these tiny papers are disappearing and this company is doing something about it. There were something like 13,000 journalism jobs lost last year and Patch has hired 800 journalists for about as many sites it seems. That's just a tiny portion of the thousands of papers that have been lost in recent years. Is that so bad?
#5 Posted by Ann O., CJR on Fri 17 Dec 2010 at 05:23 PM