AOL, ESPN and New York Times Go After Hyperlocal Online Business

As journalism changes and newspapers undergo seismic shifts, big media companies are setting up local shops, and they're hoping to win local online ad dollars as a result. AOL, ESPN, New York Times and NPR are all expanding quickly in the hyperlocal online business. Local online advertising has grown 45% each year for the last five years. Here's a look at the opportunities and pitfalls in this week's New Media Minute.

AOL, ESPN and New York Times Go After Hyperlocal Online Business Daisy Whitney: Hey there! I'm Daisy Whitney and this is the New Media Minute presented by NATPE. This episode is sponsored by thePlatform, a media publishing system used by cable companies, mobile providers and video sites at theplatform.com and also by Digitalsmiths. You can learn all about that company’s advanced digital media tools at Digitalsmiths.com. So, when AOL recently announced that its online local network of new sites, Patch.com had reached 100 towns at the end of the summer and would hit 500 by the end of the year. Those milestones signify a significant shift and growth in the hyperlocal online news business. This is an area that a lot of big media companies are investing in, so we should pay attention to it because local online ad dollars are following. Companies like ESPN, New York Times, NPR are all investing resources in hyperlocal online news. ESPN has launched local sites in Boston, Chicago and other markets. Web traffic to those sites is rising at about 5% each month and the media research from Borrell says that over the last several years, local online advertising has grown about 45% each year. So definitely pay attention to this area and that’s why I sent my friend and Seattle-based videographer David Albright to talk to Justin Carder. He heads up a local based hyperlocal operation in Seattle called Neighbor Logs. He's the VP of Business Development. He asked him a lot of questions about what it takes for an independent to survive. Justin Carder: The biggest challenge in scaling hyperlocal is it’s not designed to scale. It’s about going to community meetings. It’s about being on the street. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on it. We’ve tried to build tools that help on the parts that you can bring scale to on the technology side, on the news gathering side, the advertising side and coordinating multiple contributors and freelancers. Those are all areas where you can bring scale and efficiencies. Keep fighting and this is a good time for us. There's no reason to handover the keys to the castle at this point. The big brands are interested in your site and there's no reason to cut in a middleman. Find a good partner to work with that’s going to make you an equal partner. Daisy Whitney: So, there you go. I'm Daisy Whitney, friend me up on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.