Personal round up of developments in the hyper-local space across the UK and US during Nov-Dec 2011. Curation of stories covering local media, location based services, research and journalism. Comments and feedback welcome.
1. Hyper-Local Insights
November 11 - December 11
20 things to note from the UK & North America
A personal take on recent discussions and developments
Damian Radcliffe, 12th January 2012
Comments and feedback welcome:
damian.radcliffe@ofcom.org.uk
damian.radcliffe@gmail.com
@mrdamian76
2. Contents
UK USA
1. British Library newspaper archive 1. Facebook buys Gowalla
2. New IPTV service for Liverpool 2. Clear Channel moves into Deals
3. Global Radio launches Daily Deals 3. Other Daily Deals
4. PitsnPots funding 4. Local advertising predictions
5. New Networked Neighbourhoods data 5. News from AOL and Patch
6. Newspaper round-up 6. Examiner.com
7. BBC Local Radio cuts (update) 7. Newspaper round-up
8. Local TV developments 8. New JiWire location research
9. Community Radio Annual Report 9. New Forrester location research
10. n0tice goes beta 10. New Pew Report on local news sources
As ever, thanks for reading!
4. 1. British Library newspaper archive
• The British Library has launched The British Newspaper Archive website giving access to
up to 4 million fully searchable pages mostly regional titles from the 19th century.
• Run in partnership with brightsolid, the archive features more than 200 newspaper titles
from across the UK and Ireland, with 8,000 new pages added each day.
• The service available to browse for a small fee, or free to those
visiting the central library in King's Cross. Users can search for
family notices, obituaries, news articles, letters, advertisements
and illustrations.
“I searched for my own constituency of Wantage and within seconds had 42,000 results
- an indication of the breadth and variety of material featured.“
Culture and Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey
You can access the archive via: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Sources: http://bit.ly/srrBpX and http://bit.ly/t5Yzb8
5. 2. New IPTV service for Liverpool
• Bay TV Liverpool launched on 1st November 2011, offering a mix of news, sport and
entertainment programmes.
• It is run by a consortium, “led by AIMES Grid Services - a Liverpool University enterprise
- and the Government's Technology Strategy Board.”
• The service is aimed at the Liverpool City Region, which includes “the City of Liverpool
and the authorities of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral.”
• Their website notes that the
“area is home to more than
2.5m consumers”.
Anyone can open an account
and upload video content to
the "Viewer Videos" and
"Classified" section of the site.
See: http://baytvliverpool.com/
6. 3. Global Radio launch daily-deals service
• Global Radio, which owns the Capital and Heart radio networks, launched a daily-deals
website in November - Welovelocal.com - initially focussing on Birmingham.
• Global Radio plans to launch further sites during 2012 targeting each of its 20 other
regional centres, which include London, Plymouth and Glasgow.
• Welovelocal.com offers consumers a discount of up to 90% on a range
of products, experiences and services in their local area.
• Mark Lee, managing director, regions, at Global Radio estimated that the daily deals
market has grown from nothing to a value of about £4m in the Birmingham area alone
over the past year. He believes the sites will open Global Radio to new advertisers.
• Global Radio's predecessor, GCap Media, bought the local reviews and listing website
Welovelocal.com in 2008 for £600,000. The daily deals element is a totally new feature.
Source: http://bit.ly/xzXYYh
7. 4. PitsnPots gets new funding
• Stoke hyper-local PitsnPots announced towards the end of the year that they had
secured funding from The Journalism Foundation, a non-for-profit organisation that
promotes, develops and sustains free and fair journalism across the world.
• Its CEO is Simon Kelner, former editor-in-chief of The Independent and it is chaired by
Evgeny Lebedev, chairman of The Independent and the Evening Standard. Other trustees
include Baroness Kennedy, Lord Fowler - former chair of the House of Commons media
select committee - and Sir John Tusa, former director general of BBC World Service.
• PitsnPots was one of two projects supported at the launch of the Foundation.
• The other, a partnership with City University, will provide training for journalists in
Tunisia, teaching local journalists how to report in a free and open society.
• Mike Rawlins from Pits n Pots said funding would be used to
develop a more sustainable public service business model,
whilst also looking at generating more engagement with the
politically disenfranchised. It is hoped the site can become a
template for other locations.
8. 5. New Networked Neighbourhoods data
Hugh Flouch and Kevin Harris, at Networked Neighbourhoods have published new research
noting that:
“Local council officers and elected members regard neighbourhood websites
as the most useful online channel, above others such as Facebook or Twitter.”
Other key findings include:
– Those claiming that they are aware of one or more neighbourhood sites in their area increased
from 63% in 2010 to 84% for members, and from 55% to 92% among officers responding.
– The proportion of members who perceived local sites to be negative dropped 5%, from 17%.
– Nonetheless, in 2011 the proportion of members who feel that relationships with sites can be
described as ‘co-operative’ is about 50%, compared to two thirds in 2010. Among officers the
trend is in the other direction: from 53% in 2010 to 67% this year.
– Some 90% of members feel that they should read and contribute to neighbourhood websites as
active participants, compared with 65% in 2010.
Source: http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/?p=907
9. 6. Newspaper Round Up
• Figures from the Advertising Association showed ad revenues at regional papers were
down 8.7% in Q3, with free titles suffering a 14.9% drop, paid-for weeklies off 5.8% and
regional dailies 3.4% lower. However, the body forecast regionals will return to ad
revenue growth in Q3 2012.
http://bit.ly/urQJYb
------------------
• Newsquest-owned Glasgow newspapers the Herald and Sunday Herald are to erect a
paywall for their online content. Over each four-week period, the first 10 articles read on
their websites will be free, with a cost of £2.99-per-month above that, starting with an
initial £1-per-month payment. Digital director Mark Smith said:
"Our research shows that most of our users are happy to pay for something they value...
We also believe it's important that quality journalism by Scots and for
Scots exists and prospers in the digital environment.“
http://bit.ly/s5V73W
------------------
• The Telegraph claimed that the Daily Mail & General Trust has appointed Ernst & Young
to value its Northcliffe Media regional division ahead of a potential sale. The report
speculated that Northcliffe’s portfolio of titles could be broken up and sold in small
bundles after the "vendor due diligence" review valued the assets at £150m.
http://tgr.ph/vEi4WI
10. • Johnston Press is rolling out mobile versions for its
211 local media websites.
Featuring news, sport, lifestyle, community content,
and video, the mobile websites are designed to
cater for smartphones’ screen sizes and device
functionality.
• Johnston Press’ Find it directory is embedded
within the mobile sites, so users to search for and
check out local businesses and services whilst on
the move.
• David Moth reports that they will monetise the
sites by selling two ad slots on each of the main and
article pages
See: http://bit.ly/tdlbS7
Image via: http://bit.ly/rU7OZy
11. 7. BBC Local Radio
• In a previous pack I reported on proposals from BBC management
to make changes at BBC Local Radio services. (See: Consultation: BBC Local Radio for more details.)
• Labour MP Austin Mitchell told the Commons that cuts of c.£15m to BBC local radio
stations would be “a crippling blow”, and "deeply damaging" to the BBC’s output .
• At the same Commons debate, Lib Dem MP Don Foster said:
"I simply do not understand why something that is so important to so many of our
constituents is under attack in this way. It is worth remembering that something like
20% of people only listen to local radio. It is a lifeline for older people and the disabled and so on.
I hope again the BBC will look at it again, just as they will look again at the issue of regional TV."
Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/01/bbc-local-radio-cuts
• In response, BBC Director General Mark Thompson told MPs who have called for local
radio services to be saved that they are “pushing at a partly open door”, after the public
consultation on proposed changes prompted by the public and political response.
“There is no question we are looking for significant savings in radio, and we will have to look
carefully at how the public have responded to that question and see whether it should be amended.”
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/bbc/bbc-mps-pushing-on-open-door-over-local-radio/5035757.article
12. • The National Union of Journalists warned that proposed BBC cuts (NB: not just those
potentially affecting Local Radio) will lead to a reduction in the UK’s economic output of
up to £1.7bn, citing research by Howard Reed of Landman Economics. Reed said:
“It is clear that the BBC cuts will have a huge adverse impact on the UK’s creative industries
sector, just at the time when the country is relying on world-leading sectors such as this to
spearhead economic recovery from the most serious economic crisis for seventy years.
Economically, cutting the BBC by this much, at this time, looks like a dangerous and
wrongheaded strategy.”
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/nuj-bbc-cuts-to-cost-uk-17bn/5036038.article
• The Local Government Association warned that planned cuts to BBC local radio could
jeopardise emergency broadcasts in a civil crisis. The LGA said the Corporation was
underestimating the "risks to people's safety" which local radio reports could help
relieve, citing the example of key advice being broadcast about local flooding. The BBC
responded that its local radio would continue to play a key role in emergencies.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16296635
13. And three UK stories you may have seen
before from my end of year round up
(but not from any bi-monthly packs)
14. 8. Local TV moves a step closer
In December, DCMS published the shortlist of the 20 towns and cities across the UK which
are expected to be the first to have their own local TV stations.
They are: Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Grimsby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford,
Plymouth, Preston, Southampton and Swansea.
A further 24 areas have been identified for a future round of licensing (2012/13):
Aberdeen, Ayr, Bangor, Barnstaple, Basingstoke, Bedford, Cambridge, Carlisle, Derry /
Londonderry, Dundee, Guildford, Hereford, Inverness, Kidderminster, Limavady, Luton,
Maidstone, Malvern, Mold, Salisbury, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent, Stratford upon Avon, York.
Ofcom is currently consulting on proposals for awarding local TV licences.
The Government has also laid three Orders before Parliament that,
if they enter into force, would create a statutory framework for
local television.
15. Potential impact of these orders
Multiplex Licence
• Spectrum will be awarded through a competitive process to a multiplex operator to
provide distribution for local TV. “The multiplex operator will also be able to utilise two
additional videostreams with the potential to create two quasi-national channels.”
• Competition for the multiplex licence will be open to commercial and not-for-profits.
Ownership rules
• The Government intends to consult in 2012 about whether independent television
production companies should be allowed to bid for local TV licences.
• Current rules, would prevent an independent producer from owning
more than 25 per cent of a local TV licence.
EPG prominence
• Local television services may be added to the list of channels which must be given
appropriate prominence on electronic programme guides (EPGs).
• Sky and Virgin have committed to offering apps or the yellow button for audiences to
access IPTV or video-on-demand local TV services from their front pages.
16. 9. Community Radio Annual Report
Ofcom recently published it’s annual report into the sector, noting:
The regulator has licensed 231 stations. Of this, 196 are broadcasting, 23 have either decided
not to launch or handed their licence back. The remainder are preparing to go on air.
• 9.2 million adults were able to receive a community radio station broadly aimed at them.
• Most stations serve general audiences, but many serve smaller communities of interest;
e.g. minority ethnic groups (13%), youth (11%) and those with a religious focus (6%).
Ofcom’s Annual Report on the sector concludes:
“At a cost of just over £10 million pounds, based on the reports
received from stations in this reporting period, community radio in
the UK delivered:
• A total of more than 12,500 volunteering opportunities
• Over 45,000 volunteer hours each week
• Over 15,000 hours of original radio output each week
• Output broadcast in a wide range of community languages.”
17. 10. n0tice
• N0tice was launched by The Guardian in private beta at the end of October 2011. The
initiative, which started as a hack day project is billed as an online community
noticeboard where news, events, and local special offers can be posted.
“In many ways they’ve created a new kind of social platform, or a really really old one reinvented for the new world….”
Matt McAlister, Director of Digital Strategy at Guardian Media Group
• There is no cost for users to join but in order to advertise their product/event in a
premium position on other users' pages it will cost around £1 per day, dependent on the
size of the advert, the size of the geographical region the ad will reach and how long the
advert will remain on the site.
• Bobbie Johnson at GigaOM described it as “part blogging platform, part Craigslist, part
communal Twitter stream, part forum, part event listing” whilst Katherine Travers at
Editor’s Weblog noted that “the potential of n0tice is multifold, however; the n0tice
team has even ventured to explore the potential of using n0tice as a live blogging tool for
a local audience. The site makes it easy to curate tweets, embed video and update the
board as often as necessary.”
19. 1. Facebook buys Gowalla
Facebook has bought location-based service Gowalla which allows users to share their location
and to check in to restaurants, cafes and cinemas across the world.
Gowalla co-founder Josh Williams told users:
"We know how much many of you loved Gowalla. It's been the highlight of our lives as we've built it with
your help over the past two years. As we move forward, we hope some of the inspiration behind Gowalla
- a fun and beautiful way to share your journey on the go - will live on at Facebook."
Williams and fellow co-founder, Scott Raymond
will join Facebook’s design and engineering
teams.
See: http://bloom.bg/syEqKB
Image: http://www.austinpost.org/files/articles/gowalla.png
Their blog notes:
“Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end
of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export
your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along
with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well.
Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.”
20. 2: Clear Channel moves into Deals
Two US radio giants have created an alliance over an online daily deals service.
850-station owner Clear Channel Communications is to run ads for
Cumulus Media’s online deals programme SweetJack.
In return, Cumulus, with 570 radio stations, will become part of
iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s streaming app and online radio brand.
Financial details were not revealed.
SweetJack has launched in 16 US cities and attracted 1m subscribers.
Under the new alliance, it aims to roll-out out to 120 markets by the end of 2012.
Source: http://nyti.ms/AlpUqB
21. 3. Other Daily Deal news
Eight US newspaper publishers —- eBay-owned online payments group PayPal
Advance Digital, A. H. Belo said it plans to launch a daily deals service in
Corporation, Cox Media Group, Q1 2012, tailoring offers according to users’
Gannett, Hearst, MediaNews Group, purchasing patterns and mobile location data.
The McClatchy Company, and The PayPal president Scott Thompson said:
Washington Post Co. -— have formed a
“The experience is going to be completely different
joint venture to promote their than anyone else’s through and through.
individual daily deals efforts. We’ll only give you something that we think
fits the category of unique and relevant.
Everyone else is going to bombard you.”
Source: http://bloom.bg/slVFeO
PaidContent notes that:
“This new venture is being created with assets from the new
entity’s acquisition of Travidia, the developer of Find n Save.
The new company will adopt the Find n Save brand.”
Source: http://bit.ly/uxwLYR
22. 4. Local Advertising Predictions
BIA/Kelsey: Local Digital Ad Revenue to Hit $37.9 Billion by 2015
1. This is up from $23.3 billion in 2011. They also lowered their expectations for combined
digital and traditional local advertising revenues in 2011 from $136.2 billion to $135.9 bn.
2. Spending on local digital ads will grow from $23.3 billion in 2011 to $37.9 billion in 2015.
3. Share of digital media spend will increase from 14.6 % of all local ad revenues in 2010 to
18.9% in 2012 and 25.4% in 2015.
See: http://bit.ly/v3GnVD
Borrell: Online Poised For Dominance in Local Ads
A new report from Borrell Associates predicts that online could become the primary medium
destination for local advertising dollars by 2013, while mobile advertising will steadily
increase its share of local ad dollars, reaching 88% of all local digital advertising by 2016.
Borrell forecasts a 66% increase in local mobile advertising in 2012, reaching $4.3 billion
from $2.6 billion in 2011. This will represent an increase from 6.3% to 14.1% of local
advertising share.
Source: http://bit.ly/uUHKhw
23. 5. Patch and AOL
The Batavian's Howard Owens commented in Nieman Lab’s 2012 predictions:
“Patch won’t survive the year.
The collapse of Patch will lead to a conventional wisdom among pundits that
“see, we told you, hyperlocal can’t build a sustainable business model.”
Meanwhile, the local independents will continue to soldier on,
incrementally building their sustainable businesses.
The number of local independent online publishers in the US will double in 2012
(not that we have a real good count on how many actual local indie online
news businesses there are now, but the industry segment will continue to grow).
-------------------
Starboard Value, which owns about 4.5% of AOL, wrote to CEO Tim Armstrong arguing the
group is currently "deeply undervalued” as investors remain unpersuaded by “money-losing
growth initiatives”, such as its Patch local news network. (See: http://prn.to/vneTXt)
-------------------
Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici reports that Patch had moved away from its guarantee that it would be
in 1,000 towns by the end of the year, whilst The Huffington Post rolled out local news
websites in November with the launch of HuffPost Detroit and HuffPost Miami .
24. 6. Examiner.com – the new Patch?
Business Insider asked if Examiner.com is “an AOL Patch-Killer” noting that the three years
old, local-oriented entertainment, news and lifestyle site Examiner.com had 21 million
uniques and 64 million pageviews in November.
• According to Quantcast's site rankings, Examiner.com is the 96th most-visited site in the
U.S. — 77 spots ahead of Patch.com, which is 173rd.
• Each "examiner" (i.e. writer) covers a specific topic in a specific area.
• There are now 85,000 paid examiners, about 20% of which post at least once every 90
days, and 15% of which post at least every 30 days.
PaidContent meanwhile notes that Examiner.com is partnering with CBS to provide exclusive
content for CBS’s locally targeted
websites. Starting with 25 main
cities, the content – a series of
“Best Of” guides and “Top Spots”
lists – is anticipated to include all
CBS Local sites by end of Q1 2012.
25. 7. Newspaper roundup
MediaNews Group announced that three of its Jeffrey Cole, director of the University of
California titles are to cease printing Monday editions, Southern California's Annenberg centre for
and will drop paywalls on their websites for that day. the digital future, said he believes :
Source: http://bit.ly/snKJMv
“the only print newspapers that will
-------------
survive will be at the extremes of the
Gannett-owned US newspaper the Chicago Sun-Times medium - the largest and the smallest”
and its 39 affiliated titles will charge readers for online
content. At the time of the announcement, no details of As a result of the move to digital, Cole
pricing were given. The US publisher began paywall argued only the New York Times,
tests last July at three of its 82 US newspapers. Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and
Source: http://bit.ly/sLPKnO USA Today would retain their print
editions in a few years’ time.
Source: http://bit.ly/u2hNWe
The New York Times Co is to sell its 16-title Regional
Media Group to Halifax Media Holdings for $143m. USC Annenberg journalism professor Judy
Muller in an op-ed in the LA Times lauded
The small regional newspapers included in the sale America’s small-town newspapers, noting
include the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, they are “doing just fine, thank you,”
and the Tuscaloosa News. despite the collapse of larger, big-city
Source: http://nyti.ms/uTMI3P equivalents.
26. 8. New location based research (Pt1)
JiWire’s latest Mobile Audience Insights Report reported a number of emerging trends in the
location and mobile markets:
• Proximity Marketing – 66% prefer to purchase in a physical store within a five-mile radius.
• Tablet adoption continues - Tablet usage is up 84% since Q4 2010.
• Checking-in - Consumers are split evenly between liking, disliking and not interested.
Other findings include:
• Consumer purchase intent is 50% higher for smartphones and/or tablets compared to laptops over
the next six months (25% versus 16%), continuing to accelerate the shift in device ownership.
• Adults 24 years old and under are more likely to purchase a smartphone and/or laptop in the next
six months while adults between the ages of 25 and 44 are more likely to purchase a tablet.
Source: http://bit.ly/rtanNG
27. 9. New location based research (Pt2)
• Forrester Research surveyed 37,000 people with mobile phones finding that the majority
of them (70%) had never even heard about geo-social apps, down from 85% last year.
• Among the 30% of respondents who are familiar with location-based apps, only a
minority use them often.
Of the 5% who are active
location based service users, the
survey found:
- 2% use the apps weekly,
- 1% use them monthly and
- 2% use them less than once a
month.
Source: Mashable
http://on.mash.to/t8jCA2
28. 10. New Pew Research data
New data from Pew paints a picture of how different ages use different media to find out
about information about their local area, with the web dominating for 18-39s and
Newspapers for those aged 40+.
Source: http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/local_news
29. Local TV news most popular source
While Local TV news remains the most
popular source for local information in
America, adults rely on it primarily for
just three subjects—weather, breaking
news and to a lesser extent traffic.
Newspapers (both print and on the web)
are the source Americans turn to
most for a wider range of information
than any other source.
Web-only outlets are now the key source
of information on some key subjects
such as education or local business and
restaurants.
Source: http://bit.ly/xotRGe
Image: http://bit.ly/pYm3zr
30. For more hyper-local roundups visit:
http://www.slideshare.net/mrdamian
User note
All content in this and previous slide packs is in the public domain.
These slides bring these stories together and hopefully highlight some things you may have missed.
All content is referenced so you can go and read original articles for yourself if you want.
Any omissions, errors or mistakes are mine, and mine alone.
Feedback, suggestions and comments are very welcome.
Contact me:
damian.radcliffe@gmail.com (home)
damian.radcliffe@ofcom.org.uk (work)
Twitter: @mrdamian76