Bike recovered thanks to CDNews. (Photo: CentralDistrictnews.com)

Here's the latest from the Neighborlogs Network of sites. Want to start your own neighborhood news site? Register for our beta.

• The Eastlake Ave blog showcases many summer photos from the area.
• Seattle's summer time stimulus plan prompted our Belltown and Southlake sites to lay out all the great deals for their readers.
• A reader's bike was recovered thanks to the community over at Central District News.
• San Diego Dtown shows us some new ways to work out this summer.

Here's the latest from the Neighborlogs Network of sites. Want to start your own neighborhood news site? Register for our beta.

 

• Thirsty? TheSouthlake lets us in on a free Jones Soda deal from their South Lake Union headquarters.
• Sandiegodtown featured the "pitching guru" this week in a sports analysis from a man who knows it best.
• Streets blocked were blocked off and the SWAT team was called for what turned out to be theater students practicing for a play in Capitol Hill.
• Our North Seattle Blog, LakeCityLive, was quick on the scene for a surprising car crash.
• CentralDistrictNews discovers chickens in neighborhood backyards.

A cool story from the first Neighborlogs site ever shows what can happen when great news and information providers connect with their community. The Central District News recently ran a post from a resident whose bike had been stolen.

Here's what happened next:

Officer Jonathan Chin and his partner were on routine patrol Monday when they saw a man riding a bike without a helmet. They made a traffic stop for the helmet violation, and on closer inspection Officer Chin realized he recognized the bike. He had visited CDNews earlier that day and had seen soundviewrob's post about the bike, and made the connection.

Neighborhood news can't guarantee every stolen bike is going to be returned. But as a force to connect the people who live and work in your community, it does accomplish some pretty amazing things.

Contact Justin Carder justin@neighborlogs.com or call (206) 399-5959

Neighborlogs tends to take a Seattle-centric view of hyperlocal. It's our HQ, for one, we have a lot of our beta sites operating here in the city and there's a rich environment of community news sites that is continuing to grow. But there's a big world beyond our home.

This Seattle data mining guru asks where else is hyperlocal news taking off?

Interesting responses thus far:

• Portland OR -- yay Foster Powell PDX and Parkrose Gateway
• Richmond VA -- http://rvablogs.com/ has a list
• Durham NC -- http://www.bullcityrising.com has a list

Outside.in also featured this list of neighborhoods around the country that were lucky enough to have multiple blogs covering their news and information.

Your community need a neighborhood news blog or three? Register for the Neighborlogs beta.

Here is some overseas inspiration for a way to connect in the real world with your local news community. From the New York Times:

Several coffee shops set to open next month in the Czech Republic plan to offer more than the usual array of cafe services. As they sip their drinks, visitors will also be able to surf the Web, get help in building social networking profiles or even chat with reporters working right next door putting together their local newspapers.

The newsrooms-cum-cafes are part of a new venture in so-called hyperlocal journalism, which aims to reconnect newspapers with readers and advertisers by focusing on neighborhood concerns at a neighborhood level: think garbage collection schedules, not Group of 7 diplomacy.

Hyperlocal publications have been springing up across Europe and North America as newspapers seek a formula for survival. But the Czech plan, the project of PPF Group, an investment firm, goes unusually far in its goal of weaving journalists into the communities they serve.

No... (more)

From lakecitylive.net

Here's the latest from the Neighborlogs Network of sites. Want to start your own neighborhood news site? Register for our beta.

• Andrew Taylor from Capitol Hill Seattle keeps us up to date on the resurrection of Miller Playfield.  
• The folks over at Eastlake Ave have graciously provided a list of businesses staying open on the fourth in case you run out of hot dog buns.
• A great line up of pizza and popcorn from sandiegodtown.com.
• Meet the man behind the words from one of our Seattle blogs, Belltownpeople.
• Lake City’s fireworks come under attack…even Stephen Colbert is upset.

Local NPR affiliate KUOW has started broadcasting on-air roundtables featuring Seattle neighborhood news bloggers. Last week, I was part of the debut episode of The Conversation show's Neighborhood News sessions. You can enjoy that discussion here starting around the 14:20 mark.

This week, KUOW has invited another neighborhood news provider from team Neighborlogs -- company prez Scott Durham will be on the air talking about the latest happenings in the Central District along with bloggers from the Rainier Valley Post and Tacoma's Exit 133.

It's very cool for KUOW to recognize the important information flow that is happening in the area's neighborhoods and to give voice to some of the great people behind the news sites. For all the talk about big news sites aggregating and pointing to community news sites, it's even more exciting to see a growing respect for these site owners and opportunities for them to directly reach more people.

The roundtable is scheduled for Thursday during the noon hour. You can listen... (more)

With a mayoral race, city council seats up for grabs and a battle for the King County Executive slot, to name a few, Seattle has a summer of campaigning and, yes, political advertising ahead. The re-election campaign for incumbent mayor Greg Nickels showed that it won't be political advertising as usual, however. The mayor's team announced they have launched a campaign on 13 Seattle area sites including several neighborhood news blogs.

There have been some experiments with political advertising on select neighborhood news sites in Seattle and on other sites in the city in past campaigns but it's really exciting that people are starting to see neighborhood and community news sites as a better way to get the word out. There is no better way to reach specific neighborhoods than to be part of sites that are dedicated to covering the area's news, events and people.

It's a great beginning but hopefully these campaigns are just getting started. First, there are a lot more sites to be part of. There were at least... (more)

Thanks much to all the locals who participated in this episode of NPR's On the Media:

The Inheritance Of Loss
May 29, 2009
It seems like every week a city in America loses its newspaper. We decided to focus on one, Seattle, to find out what happens afterwards.

It's a great discussion of the new local media landscape here in Seattle and a great listen for anybody thinking about jumping in with an independent, local, online news effort. Two voices deserve special thanks for their part in the program.

Tracy Record of the West Seattle Blog once again says exactly the right things about what her online news business is building and the way journalism is being shaken by new tools and, more importantly, new focus on community news.

Eli Sanders of Seattle's alt weekly the Stranger, meanwhile, deserves bigger thanks for, one, mentioning the neighborhood news blog that I run at capitolhillseattle.com or, as Eli referred to it, the "Capitol Hill Seattle Blog." Don't know you Eli, but thanks! Surprised to see how many...

InstiNews is built on the same foundation that makes Neighborlogs a powerful tool for neighborhood blogs and news sites. InstiNews builds on this foundation and offers more advanced tools to suit the needs of larger news organizations.

Our goal with InstiNews is to provide news organizations with an easy-to-use service that:

• Is fully community-enabled.  Anyone can join a site and post full news stories, participate in forums, upload photos, videos, etc. Editors have full control to promote any user content to the front page or to other highlighted areas of the site.
• Is geo-enabled, so that any content can be placed on and browsed to via a map, by neighborhood, etc.
• Comes with built-in revenue streams, with our self-service advertising system integrated throughout the site. Site owners can also...

Building tools and services for the truly local content and advertising industry has its challenges. For one, it's an environment, thankfully, dominated by thousands of independent sites and businesses. For another, there's the damn word hyperlocal.

It's used to describe everything from fully automated aggregators to finely crafted mom and pop journalism.

That's confusing. It's confusing to the businesses and site owners, it's confusing to advertisers and it's confusing to the communities and audiences that have grown to love these offerings.

Seeking to bust through this haze, EveryBlock's Adrian Holovaty suggested way back in December 2008 that what his service was doing was not 'hyperlocal' but instead...

Microlocal.
This gives a much better sense of our focus. It's unambiguous in its level of detail: the 1400 block of S. Hill Street in Seattle is unequivocally "micro." Is a neighborhood micro? Yeah, kinda, depending on the size. An entire county, a borough, or city/suburb? No.

Hmmm. Living in Microsoft... (more)

Neighborlogs is having fun growing in the middle of journalism's storms of change. Sites using our service are part of what comes next for local news and information. We're learning so much watching it play out and working to build the tools and services people need for the new era.

There is a lot to learn here and, so, it seems like a good opportunity for a student to join the team. We are creating an intern position with our company -- Neighborlogs Seattle Editor. The editor will gather news and information in the Seattle area including working with the Seattle Police Department and city government to cover news and events. The editor will also assist with the entirety of the start-up business including marketing and working with customers across the country using the Neighborlogs service. It should be a good gig and awesome opportunity to see the frontlines of how local information gathering is changing.

Plus, the Neighborlogs Seattle Editor will have a swell mentor. I've been working in online media for... (more)

If you are looking for inspiration for your first neighborhood blog post, here's a look at how three of Seattle's leading neighborhood bloggers got started -- and to be fair, I've included my first 'hood blog post. Ever! In some, you can see there was a plan from day one to create a local news and information site that was vital to the community. But you can also see glimpses of the uncertainty and early exploration that comes with creating something new. My favorite element of these examples is the promise underlying each. As the first West Seattle Blog entry from Christmas Eve 2005 promises, there is, indeed, much more to come.

My first 'hood blogging post (May 9, 2005, btw) was an only-slightly-cringe-inducing manifesto:

Want to cringe along with me while reading my other early posts?

West Seattle's premier was more of a test launch with way more editorial commentary than you'll ever find on their just-the-facts (and all-the-facts!) site today:

You can peruse WSB's other early posts here.

Seattle's other... (more)

Want to know more about the business behind my own neighborhood blog? Jane Stevens digs into CapitolHillSeattle.com in this case study to find out more about how I run the site and utilize the Neighborlogs service. It's a cool write-up. I even learned a little about my business just seeing the details of it all.

reJurno case study: CapitolHillSeattle.com

No News is Bad News
Originally uploaded by cascadeguy

Company prez Scott Durham was part of a panel discussing sustainable business models for journalism last night in Seattle. The No News is Bad News forum gathered area online entrepreneurs to discuss what it takes to survive and thrive in the new era of new media. You can view a video archive of the event here.

Given that there was a room full of journalists gathered and a lot of people tuning into the proceedings online, the Twitter stream from the event was rich. Here are some of our favorite Tweets from the night. There was a wide spectrum of ground covered -- but the selected focus on issues central to Neighborlogs, neighborhood blogs and hyperlocal content:

westseattleblog: @scottdurham - journalists, KEEP WRITING! even if you're not doing it for money at the...

Wherever there is a discussion of neighborhood news sites and their probability of success as a business, there is an Aaron. Aaron leaves his comments on sites from coast to coast. On this thread. And that thread. He's the nation's leading hyperlocal news skeptic TM.

His latest shot across the bow of neighborhood news as a viable small business came on this thread discussing Baristanet's appearance on the CBS news program Sunday Morning. Baristanet is one of the oldest and most successful local news blogs on the Internet. Like most of his comments, Aaron's points related to the recognition received by the New Jersey news site were focused on poking holes in the notion that local news sites can survive as independent businesses.

As the world's only provider of a free blogging and advertising service designed for neighborhood bloggers, you'd think Neighborlogs might not like Aaron very much. But when I read through these bullet points from Aaron's Baristanet comments, his recipe for (low probability) hyperlocal... (more)

My neighborhood news site is doing well in the advertising department. I've written about my small (but growing!) ad revenue in the past. It's a testament to the Neighborlogs self-serve ad system and it's also a cool opportunity to study how small and local businesses behave in the local news advertising environment.

One anecdotal observation I have made on my own site is the seeming frequency of new advertisers starting on a Saturday. So I decided to take a look at the usage dataset from across all sites using the Neighborlogs service to see if the numbers line up with my observations.

Turns out, Saturday is, indeed, special when it comes to small, local businesses and self-serve advertising. The Day of Week bar graph below shows three measurements from the Neighborlogs network of sites. The blue bars represent activity by advertisers, the red bars represent all activity on the sites and the green bar represents the delta between the red and blue bars. The advertiser and all activity values are indexed so... (more)

I operate my neighborhood news site as a business -- right now CapitolHillSeattle.com is my main source of contribution to the Justinc family coffers. Like any good start-up, Instivate (the maker of Neighborlogs!) is about equity and the long-term. But I also utilize my site as a test bed of neighborhood blogging and online journalism.

Recently, I started an experiment that is kind of crazy given the trials and tribulations currently striking the print journalism landscape. Every Sunday, I produce a print edition of my neighborhood blog.

I use the FeedJournal service to automatically convert my RSS feed into an 8-page PDF newspaper complete with a masthead, banner headlines, pictures and, thanks to one of Neighborlogs' cooler features, advertisements. On the plus side, it's mostly auto-magical -- I simply point the service at my feed, click and get the PDF. The service automatically selects a layout -- even automatically picking a lead story which sometimes deserves the slot, sometimes does not -- and churns... (more)

The subject of Cost Per Click advertising rates came up on the Journalism That Matters email list yesterday, and Tracy of West Seattle Blog raised an excellent point:

For local businesses advertising on ultralocal sites, display is the most successful model - raise awareness that the business exists - not clickthru. Can't speak to other types but we frequently explain this WRT our ads.

This completely matches with our own experience across our Neighborlogs network.

Too many people have focused on CPC because it's what worked for Google.  But Google got started doing contextual search advertising.  If someone does a search for hammers, it makes sense to show them an ad for hammers, and then charge the advertiser a transactional fee if the user clicks on a link where they might buy a hammer from some online ecommerce-enabled website.

But the hyper-local space is totally different:
1.  People don't typically go to hyperlocal news sites because they're in the market to buy something - it lacks that immediate transactional... (more)

When talking with people considering joining the Neighborlogs beta -- btw, you should consider joining the Neighborlogs beta if you are thinking about starting a neighborhood blog or want to transition your existing site to a service geared to your needs -- I sometimes feel like I'm describing those old Total breakfast cereal commercials. You'd have to eat 8 bowls of blah blah blah to get the nutrition in one bowl of Total!

But we do have a lot of goodness packed into the Neighborlogs service. We have a solution that provides ten essentials of a hyperlocal news and info site:

1. A simple-to-use but powerful blog editor
2. Integrated community
3. Advertising system that is flexible and has self-serve features
4. Enabled for third party advertising systems
5. Content tools and features like mobile posting and interactive maps
6. Enabled for inclusion of third party technologies embeds and scripts
7. Hosting and technical support for database and backend technologies
8. Events calendar updated by community
9. A classifieds solution<...

I read Alan Mutter's open memo to the staff of the Seattle PI and liked what it had to say as a guide for journalists considering a new, independent path. In fact, I like it so much I have to take a section of it apart to tweak it to better fit the local, indie mission. First, go give it a read. It captures some of the second-nature things 'bloggers' do that 'traditional journalists' might not in building an audience. Yet.

Now onto the section I like so much, I have to kill it. Mr. Mutter includes two sections about monetization. I'll ignore the first one about premium content. Sure. Go for it!

But let's talk about the second monetization section on ads because that's the one that really matters. Alan is on to something but he just doesn't get it quite right. We're lucky. At Neighborlogs, we've already had more than 130 advertising partners use the self-serve tools built into Neighborlogs sites. Given what we've learned so far, here are a few points to consider counter to his advice. Alan's words in bold:... (more)

People are pretty darned excited that one of our faltering city dailies has started including links to other sites in its homepage news coverage. But what I've found about having one of those links point to my site will probably disappoint you.

Surely it is an exciting time to be a neighborhood blogger in Seattle. The swiftly tilting media landscape in the city means many neighborhood blogs are playing larger roles than ever. Some of the businesses being built are getting International attention. Then there is this: The Seattle PI, as it struggles toward the end of its life as a newspaper and the possible birth of its life as an online news site, has started including coverage from other sites in its Web site's 'top story' headline mix.

To many, it feels like a monumental shift -- a major metropolitan daily putting aside its authority to make space for coverage from other journalistic entities. That neighborhood blogs be counted among these journalistic entities makes the situation seemingly all the more extraordinary.... (more)

The interest around the New York Times' new activities in hyperlocal is great for Neighborlogs. Anything that draws this kind of attention to the space will help us grow.

Even better, however, is chatter like this. Reportedly, the NYT is considering getting into the neighborhood blog service game:

The long-term business model, Schachter said, could involve distributing a local-blogging platform to people in other communities who would start their own sites without any Times reporters or editors at all. They might pay the Times to license the platform or share revenue from a Times-run advertising network that’s under consideration.

To which we say, why wait? Neighborlogs is ready today for independent site owners to start their own local news and information sites with all this and more:

• Easy to use blog editing tools with built-in geolocation and maps
• Community driven content features including user posts, ratings and comments
• integrated self-serve advertising service designed for small, local businesses
• Revenue...

Cory Bergman has taken journalists to task for not doing enough to learn about growing an online news and information business -- they "wash their hands of the business side of the equation," as Bergman puts it. Agree with his scolding or not, your best route to learning about the online news business is to own and operate an online news business. And while, yes, this is an unrepentant plug for registering for the Neighborlogs beta, this is also a call for anybody who considers themselves a journalist to learn what it takes to build an audience on their own.

• It's free or cheap from a resource standpoint. Your cost is your time.
• You won't make a dime off it in near term. OK. You'll make a dime. But not a lot more in beginning. Maybe ever.
• Concentrate first on the content of the news and info you are sharing.
• Learn how to measure. By this point, everybody has seen usage data. But look at it differently for how your content is being consumed. Find behaviors that can give you clues on what you are doing that...