Hyperlocal (also reckoned Hyper-local[1][2]) is an adjective used to describe something as being "limited to a very small geographical area",[3] and in particular, to anything "[e]xtremely or excessively local", in particular with regard to media output aimed at such narrowly focused populations.[4] It has otherwise been described as "information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community".[according to whom?][not verified in body] The term can also be used as a noun in isolation,[contradictory] where its been described as referring to "the emergent ecology of data (including textual content), aggregators, publication mechanism and user interactions and behaviors which centre on a resident of a location and the business of being a resident".[according to whom?][not verified in body] More recently, the term hyperlocal has applied to uses of GPS technologies in the function of mobile device applications.[according to whom?][not verified in body]
The term may have originated in 1921 in a small U.S. newspaper, in a description of trends in Central American national politics,[5] reemerging perhaps with the 1989 The Washington Post description as "so-called hyperlocal", the aim for "tiny markets of 50,000 or less" by television cable news.[5] The concept as applied to news, readily adopted in the Web 2.0 explosion of startup web-based news efforts, has subsequently gone through practical iterations with regard to its business application, as it has moved to refine its itself via the focus and aims of each enterprise (from competing in search space, to social networking, to news reporting).[6]
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"Hyperlocal" may have first appeared in 1921 in the adjectival description of a trend in the politics of some Central American nations, in a small Ohio newspaper.[5]
Later in 20th century, it appeared in The Washington Post, being defined in 1989 in terms of "tiny markets of 50,000 or less" for television cable news, where the term hyperlocal was preceded by "so-called".[5] The term appeared as "hyper-local" in a March 11, 1991 reference to viewer-tailoring of cable news content of a station in the Washington, D.C. area to give it slants, via "shorter [additional] news reports", that would make it attractive to viewers not just of the District of Columbia but also to additional viewers in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.[7] By 1993, the term was appearing in academic volumes regarding the media industry, again in reference to the delivery of cable news content.[8]
In a report from the British charitable organisation, Nesta, it was defined as "online news or content services pertaining to a town, village, single postcode or other small, geographically defined community".[9]
As of 2024, the adjective was being defined by Merriam-Wester as "limited to a very small geographical area",[3] and by the OED as describe anything "[e]xtremely or excessively local", in particular with regard to media output (web, television, etc.) focused on such narrow populations.[4]
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Hyperlocal content has two major dimensions: geography and time. The dimensions are measures of the relevance or value perceived by the content consumer in time and space. The higher the content scores on these dimensions the more relevant the content becomes to the individual and the less it becomes to the masses. Hyperlocal content is targeted at or consumed by people or entities that are located within a well defined area, generally on the scale of a street, neighborhood, community or city. Hyperlocal content must also be relevant in time. The nature of the evolution of hyperlocal content follows these two dimensions. By combining the two dimensions we can identify types of hyperlocal content throughout history. In the distant past, hyperlocal content was low on the geographic dimension, meaning that the content met only broad needs of larger populations across bigger areas, and also low on the time dimension: relevance was perceived over long timescales. Examples include almanacs, town criers and written postings or other similar forms of infrequent content delivery mechanisms. More recent hyperlocal content scores higher on the geographic and time dimensions because it delivers more diverse content that targets geographic areas and remains relevant at much smaller time scales such as days and weeks not months and years. Recent examples of hyperlocal delivery mechanisms include neighborhood focused news sources, neighborhood voucher packs and neighborhood websites. More recently, hyperlocal content has evolved to include GPS enabled internet integrated mobile applications which score highly on both the geographic and the time dimensions. They are capable of delivering content that is relevant not just in a community but relevant right down to the individual within a geographic area that can be measured in meters and blocks not towns and neighborhoods. They are also capable of delivering content relevant at very short timescales such as seconds or minutes not just days or weeks.
Hyperlocal websites can focus on very specialized topics—i.e., stories and issues of interest only to people in a very limited area—e.g., school board meetings, neighborhood restaurants, meetings of community groups, and garage sales can receive prominent coverage.[citation needed] Specific examples include Forumhome.org, which focuses on issues likely of interest only to the few thousand residents of the small New Hampshire towns it serves, and Rheebo.com, a hyperlocal website that builds communities around things people are passionate about.[citation needed]
Hyperlocal sites may also emphasize particular subsets of issues; for instance, the former award-winning NewWest.net site—that covered events of the Rocky Mountain West [of the United States] through ca. August 2011[10]—including through the use of freelancers and citizen contributors,[citation needed] stated that it sought to be "a network of online communities... aim[ing] to serve as a nexus of dialogue and a smart guide to the news and issues..." including with regard to "culture, economy, politics, [and] environment"... around "common interests and hopes for the region as it wrestles with growth and change", thus identifying the tension between economic development and environmental concerns as an emphasis.[11] Further text ascribed to NewWest.net states that its "core mission is to serve the Rockies with innovative, participatory journalism and to promote conversation that help us understand and make the most of the dramatic changes sweeping our region".[12]
In recent years hyperlocal websites have been created to enable the concepts of the sharing economy or collaborative consumption, allowing peer communities to share human or physical assets.[citation needed] Examples include Yelp, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, eBay, Craigslist and Krrb.[citation needed] Many of the best-known hyperlocal news sites have sprung up independently, with the battle cry "local doesn't scale," but larger media companies have been interested in the concept as well.[citation needed]
Some hyperlocal sites included detailed searchable community events calendars and restaurant information, a complete listing of churches (including 360-degree inside views and recordings of sermons), and police blotter information updated every day.[citation needed] Formerly a subsidiary of AOL, Patch Media runs a large U.S.-based hyperlocal network of sites that includes news and other such features and aspects.[13][verification needed] The concept as applied to news, readily adopted in the Web 2.0 explosion of startup web-based news efforts, has subsequently gone through practical iterations with regard to its business application, as it has moved to refine its itself via the focus and aims of each enterprise (from competing in search space, to social networking, to news reporting).[6] Regarding the Patch.com case, according to Tom Kaneshige's March 2015 article in CIO magazine,
Legions of underserved local advertisers were supposed to flock to Patch sites, leaving national publishers in the collective dust. ... Of course, this wasn't how it played out. Scores of Patch sites were left inactive as the a company reexamined its strategy. Sure, hyperlocal content sounded great – everyone wants to know what's happening around them – but the flawed business model couldn't sustain it. Not enough big advertisers were targeting local markets.[14]
The Washington Post Company made a commitment earlier to develop a specifically described hyperlocal focus, in work of Rob Curley, who, by the description of journalist Carl Lavin, had worked earlier to increase page views at websites in other locales (Lawrence and Naples are mentioned).[17] Curley has been called a "hyperlocal guru" for his previous work.[This quote needs a citation] The first Curley-led effort for WashingtonPost.com focused on Loudoun County, which Lavin describes as "diverse and spread across a vast area", and so "hyper local [sic.] only in contrast to the huge reach of the mother paper".[17]
Beginning in mid-year 2007 as "LoudounExtra.WashingtonPost.com",[18] it included "all of... Loudoun County news from The Washington Post and the twice-weekly Loudoun Extra" as well as "the latest police reports, weather reports, [and] community news... throughout the day," and "feature news updates exclusive to LoudounExtra.com".[18] It underwent rebranding to LoudenExtra.com,[when?][citation needed] which between these dates, redirected to the Voices section of WashingtonPost.com[when?] (and now no longer functions).[citation needed] Rob Curly is quoted as saying, "Knocked down mailboxes will be newsworthy... What we're doing is taking the local and treating it like it's the superstar".[This quote needs a citation]WashingtonPost.com had high hopes for its hyperlocal effort, with managing editor Jim Brady saying, "It's a big effort... When you take our daily traffic and combine it with Rob Curley's expertise—if it can't work here, it can't work anywhere".[This quote needs a citation]
Other journalists, not surprisingly, expressed skepticism regarding the hyperlocal movement's focus on the often mundane information of daily life. Hyperlocal "has the potential to trivialize a media organization's brand and further saturate news sites with myopic local (and frequently unedited) content, perhaps at the expense of foreign and national reporting", stated Donna Shaw in the American Journalism Review.[19] And as Jonathan Weber, founder of NewWest.net, noted (regarding Backfence.com's closing), the lack of an appropriate content or business focus, suited to its market, can also contribute to a hyperlocally directed enterprise to fail.[6] Even so, as BBC's Van Klaveren has concluded, journalistic organizations might profit by embracing both so-called "big-J" journalism and the hyperlocal, saying "We need to move beyond news to information".[20]
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As of 2017, it was noted in a case study that the information available on social media sites in practice spanned the range from hyperlocal,[2] through to global.[citation needed] When hosting hyperlocal content, social networking sites also extensively distribute the continuum of content, hyperlocal to global, as hosted on other sites.[citation needed] This arises because of the contemporary nature of digital sharing[clarification needed] and the predominantly local composition of user's network in which content is shared.[citation needed][dubious–discuss] This type of distribution is secondary (done by users) in contrast to the primary distribution done by the content hosting site itself (e.g. Craigslist).[citation needed][original research?]
In recent years there has been a shift in user behavior to use social networking sites for both creating and sharing hyperlocal content.[citation needed] Examples include WhatsApp being increasingly used for communication and organization,[21] and eCommerce,[22] despite having no specific feature support for these activities.[original research?][citation needed]
Facebook.com hosts sixty-fold more events than eVite.com, the leading site which specializes in events only.[citation needed] This user behavior suggests[weaselwords] that an effective hyperlocal distribution is a more important consideration for users than the superior quality of the content itself.[original research?][citation needed] Since 2010, evidence shows[weaselwords] that social networking sites have been mobilizing to aid and leverage this user behavior:[citation needed] Google acquired Zagat in 2011,[citation needed] and Facebook has been adding new features (e.g. Blogs, Events) since 2012 to create varied hyperlocal content,[citation needed] and announced in 2015 a feature allowing users to mark a post as sold[23] (and later that year introduced C2C payments).[citation needed]
Many believe[weaselwords] these steps as precursors to an imminent launch of Facebook Classifieds and Marketplace,[citation needed] most likely rolled into one.[speculation?]
Magazines and newspapers
While many traditional print publications are shutting down or publish exclusively online, local newspapers in small towns can still make a profit.[24] In the United States, national companies that mail full-color glossy hyperlocal magazines to targeted neighborhoods include N2 Publishing and Best Version Media. Comparing themselves to Facebook, they publish mostly user-generated content written by local residents and homeowners associations.[25]
The most recent incarnation of hyperlocal content grew out the combination of satellite based location services and advanced wireless data built into mobile devices. Satellite-based location services allow a high degree of physical location precision. When combined with a mobile device's access to the vast set of Internet data and services, hyperlocal takes on new dimensions. Realtime internet awareness of an individual's precise location in time allows people and entities to consume or deliver hyperlocal content that is relevant to specific individuals at very small time scales.
Hyperlocal GPS mobile apps, in particular, change the nature of human interaction with their environment by providing a much faster, richer and relevant source of information. The mobile Internet data connection available to hyperlocal apps allows GPS location data to be fused with Internet data to improve the decision process of the user. Examples of these types of hyperlocal content providers are Google Maps, Foursquare and LaunchLawyer. In contrast to printed maps, the mobile Google Maps app allows users to identify places and interests around their current GPS location. In contrast to rating services or directories, the mobile Foursquare app uses GPS location data to enable users to make more informed choices and receive better deals. In contrast to printed or online lawyer directories, the GPS-enabled LaunchLawyer mobile app combines GPS awareness with the ability to almost instantly get a lawyer. In each case the combination of mobile device, GPS and the Internet changed the manner in which consumption of information, services or goods took place.
Market penetration
For large corporations, successfully targeting local populations can involve either shedding or leveraging corporate identity:
Shedding corporate identity – Starbucks' 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea cafe in Seattle was not branded with its corporate owner until January 2011. Starbucks continued Roy Street Coffee as a separate brand.[26] By shedding the corporate identity, Starbucks hoped to better cater to the local culture through various events and unique offerings.[27] Coffee tastings from experts and open mic night are examples of programs the national coffee chain offered without having it associated with the Starbucks brand.
Leveraging corporate identity –The New York Times is tapping into the hyperlocal market online, through "mentor" programs. Essentially, the NY Times wants to have a hand in the editorial process of hundreds of local media outlets. By polishing online news content with their expertise, they seek to gain small portions of advertising revenue from those digital publications with whom they own a stake.
While there are various ways in which hyperlocal content is being created and published, blogs have become a key part of the hyperlocal ecology. Their basic roles evident in the space include individual blogs, blog networks, and aggregators.
Some others initiatives are made for this purpose in the US by the company Marchex, and in France by the network ProXiti. They are developing networks of thousands hyperlocal news sites like www.10282.net (Manhattan 212) or www.75016.info (paris 16eme arrondissement).
In response to the burgeoning number of hyperlocal news sites in New Jersey, The Citizens Campaign founded the Hyperlocal News Association (HNA). The HNA works to foster and encourage growth of new hyperlocal sites across the state.
Hyperlocal marketing is marketing for businesses focused on geographies such as neighborhoods, towns, streets, and spots located near well-known landmarks, e.g., a hyperlocal search for a 'coffee shop near me'.[citation needed][28]
There are other types of data which have hyperlocal relevance or interest to a narrow set of residents—e.g. a government statistic on crime rates in one's neighborhood—which, in nature, are data of a qualitatively different type.[according to whom?]
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.
NBCNews.com, formerly known as msnbc.com, is a news website owned and operated by NBCUniversal as the online arm of NBC News. Along with original and wire reporting, it features content from NBC shows such as Today, NBC Nightly News, Meet The Press, and Dateline NBC, the MSNBC cable channel, and partners such as The New York Times.
Geotagging, or GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RgSSfeeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names, and perhaps a time stamp.
WeatherBug is a brand based in New York City that provides location-based advertising to businesses. WeatherBug consists of a mobile app reporting live and forecast data on hyperlocal weather to consumer users.
Village Media is a Canadian media company, which operates a number of hyperlocal online news and community websites throughout Ontario.
Locative media or location-based media (LBM) is a virtual medium of communication functionally bound to a location. The physical implementation of locative media, however, is not bound to the same location to which the content refers.
Sakal ("Morning") is a Marathi-language daily newspaper by Sakal Media Group.The paper's headquarters is in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Sakal is the flagship newspaper of the foundation publication, Sakal Media Group. It ranks among the largest circulated Marathi newspapers.
The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."
Mobile social networking is social networking where individuals with similar interests converse and connect with one another through their mobile phone and/or tablet. Much like web-based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities.
Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated by scholars; however, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames, and disseminated through digital media technology.
Patch Media operates Patch.com, an American local news and information platform, based in Manhattan. It is primarily owned by Hale Global. Patch is operated by Planck, LLC, doing business as Patch Media.
Telenav, Inc. is a wireless location-based services corporation that provides services including Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation, local search, automotive navigation solutions, mobile advertising, enterprise mobility and workflow automation. The company’s headquarters are located in Santa Clara, California in the United States with additional offices in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Romania, China, and Brazil.
Daily Voice, formerly Main Street Connect, is an American community journalism company that says it "bridge[s] the 'news desert' between national and hyper-local, covering town, city, county, and state". It is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, and it operates town-based news websites in various places in New Jersey and in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Circa News, also known as Circa, was an American online newspaper and entertainment service. The site was founded in 2012 by Matt Galligan, Ben Huh and Arsenio Santos. The service had news stories and features consisting of individual bits of information.
DNAinfo was an online newspaper that focused on neighborhood news in New York City and Chicago. It was closed down by CEO and owner Joe Ricketts in November 2017 after writers in its New York branch voted to unionize, a move to which Ricketts was opposed.
Mission Local is a bilingual local independent online news site that also publishes a semiannual printed paper that covers the Mission District of San Francisco.
Local Now is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Entertainment Studios. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist of weather, news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle segments, incorporating localized content through feeds geared to a user-specified area.
Brian Timpone is an American conservative businessman and former journalist who operates a network of nearly 1,300 conservative local news websites. In 2012, Timpone stated that articles on his websites are partially written by freelancers outside of the United States, although he described the writing as "domestic" in a separate interview. According to The New York Times, Timpone's "operation is rooted in deception, eschewing hallmarks of news reporting like fairness and transparency." His sites publish articles for pay from outside groups, and do not disclose it.
Neighbors by Ring, also known as simply Neighbors, is a hyperlocal social networking app owned by Ring LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc.
Petal Search is a mobile Search-based application for Android, owned and operated by Huawei and aimed at allowing users to find apps and web results delivered by Microsoft Bing. It originally had an independent search engine under the same name available on the web, but it was quietly discontinued on June 25th, 2023. The Petal suite of search, mail, and maps were created in response to sanctions that barred Huawei from using Google Mobile Services. The engine provides comprehensive search functionality including text, voice, visual, news, video, app, shopping, travel, and local searches. It can present mobile app results from the Huawei AppGallery and other trusted app stores. Petal's design, which includes a dark mode, is based on a mobile-first approach. Launched globally, the service is especially focused on European markets and supports 55 languages in 170 countries and regions as of November 2021. The Petal Search app is available in the Huawei AppGallery and the Apple App Store.
1 2 Eds. of Merriam-Webster (November 11, 2024). "Hyperlocal—adjective". Merriam-Webster.com. Chicago IL and Springfield, MA: Encyclopaedia Britannica-Merriam-Webster. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
↑ Weber, Jonathan & NW Staff (November 10, 2005). "About New West". NewWest.net. Archived from the original on November 10, 2005. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
1 2 Lavin, Carl (July 16, 2007). "Curley, Loudon Extra, and HuffPo comments"(self-published blog). 07mewsroom [indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com]. Retrieved November 11, 2024. Curiously, Lavin refers to the concept variously as "hyper-local" and "hyper local", while quoting Curley as saying "hyperlocal".
Hess, K. & Waller, L. (July 30, 2018). "Local and Hyperlocal Journalism"(encyclopedia entry). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication [OxfordRe.com]. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Online Neighbourhood Networks StudyArchived 2017-06-27 at the Wayback Machine – UK-based research published in November 2010 exploring the ways in which people communicate online using local citizen-run websites, the impact of that communication, and the implications for local service providers.
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