Innovation

Starting March 22, a business venture hopes to launch the first of 3,000 community websites in the hopes of capitalizing on hyperlocal trends. The idea, called Main Street Connect, is meant to take advantage of local businesses to advertise on local sites. Rather than selling clicks, the company hopes to market communities to advertisers.

Not sure how this is different than any other weekly chain with a web presence.

Here are a few tips to maximize your marketing of a hyperlocal news site.

"Learning to find and build contacts with local journalists and bloggers will benefit you in plenty of ways (yes, it may take quite some time but it is well worth it in the long run)."...

A profile of a digital magazine for Bahia Blanca, a city of 300,000 people nearly 700 kms south of Buenos Aires.

"Hyperlocal news projects have the opportunity to fill in the gaps left by mainstream media, and some even change the agenda by seizing that territory. "...

Entering into the new world of hyperlocal news may require the addition of skills to enable a successful project. Here is a great resource with a multitude of links to assist in getting those extras.

"The new competitive landscape requires publishers to build many new competencies, including community-building, strategic use of technology, multi-platform agility, greater integrated organizational functions and an ability to experiment, which may require counterintuitive ways of working. Media organizations are developing new competencies as they shift from the old to new paradigm."...