‘There is a paradox for local news – it can’t support its industrial era costs in a world where interest in news is moving online. But at the same time conventional local news isn’t interesting enough to people because it isn’t local enough. So it faces a lose-lose situation – to cut costs (and still broadcast or print) it has to concentrate production at a regional level and so is less interesting to its audience. Communities lose out as they lose an albeit imperfect voice.

With only a few exceptions, it is hard to see how solo ultralocal or hyperlocal sites can support a paid member of staff (at the very lowest £25k inc overheads). So unless new sources of funding arise, a conventional paid for journalist model looks unlikely at an ultralocal level. The only way to gather hyperlocal news for an industrial era news model is by tapping into a volunteer base to write news for you…..’

http://ultralocalvoice.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/talking-hyperlocal-ultralocal-workshop-at-mashup/

Rather than “working together”, which is what I had in mind, a better way, on reflection, is what is sometimes called a “united/independent” approach, where people do their own thing but collaborate as and when appropriate – which you already do.

I think we talk at cross purposes on one point. For me, “good journalism” and “an excellent product” is pretty much the same thing as a product which builds “a visible and loyal audience that have clearly defined interests”. At least, I hope it is. I include *the way we communicate with people*, as well as what we communicate, as part of what journalism is.

Eg an interesting news story may be good journalism, but if you also provide a way for people to add their own contributions then that is better journalism, for example. I think we should provide a very easy way for people to comment on stories, not just blog posts.

Another thing I think an “excellent product” would include, in the context of a local newspaper, is ways for people to create some kind of online identity on our websites. If I click on someone’s name after they have posted a comment on a newspaper website, how about having it bring up a page showing their blog URL, a feed of their latest posts, links to their flickr account if they have one or YouTube or LinkedIn, personal or professional info etc?

This wouldn’t be appropriate for national media as people would rather just use Facebook instead, but something like this would be appropriate for local media, as I think there is a space for “The Birmingham Community Website” and Birmingham’s local newspapers are the obvious people to do it. And, of course, if we get them to tell us what kind of news they are interested in as part of their profile, we feed them that news. If they are interested in health, have health stories apppear at the top of the front page for them automatically (assuming they have cookies enabled I guess:)

Or maybe that’s a lousy idea, but an excellent product certainly means more than good news stories, although those are essential (just not sufficient).

Anyway, you present some good practical ideas at the end (events, branded products etc). I mentioned what I hope is another in my original comment, when I talked about Politics Home. This is the kind of thing I mean by a business model. I think you misundestand my point about PPC advertising slightly – my whole point was that it is not and cannot be the be all and end all of revenue generation. I think finding other methods that work is the real problem we face, although I can see that you have some interesting ideas;)

Unless we have a basic understanding of the financial structures we exist in, we can never even start to influence policies and models that will determine the future of the industry we work in.
Just as we, as drivers, need to know where to put petrol in the car, air in the tyres and check spark plugs, we as journalists need to have that same level of technical and structural knowledge. It doesn’t make us mechanics nor financiers but allows us to avoid basic mistakes.

As to the derivatives issue: I wonder how many of the traders and their bosses were made destitute by the crash? Not many I think.

Jon: I’m not talking about providing an excellent product – although I would love to think that would happen.

I am talking about building a visible and loyal audience that have clearly defined interests around platforms that offer us more than “pay-per-click” advertising opportunities.

Pay-per-click advertising using banner ads and buttons is a blunt tool akin, I would imagine, to billboard hoardings. It is also a broken product. Why is the click important? (Perhaps because advertisers wanted proof they were reaching an interested audience). The importance of brand visibility is not even factored in.

Anyway, that’s another post. Suffice to say it is not the be-all-and-end-all of online revenue generation

This is also another post in itself really, but I see value in building loyal online audience groups that are very specific in nature.

That way what you offer to advertisers is a very targeted proposition – something more valuable that the scattergun approach of websites of the past.

But now with social media the web has become a place where more people come to communicate as well as consume – it means the web allows us to build up communities around niches.

Once you have those communities in place, then you have a whole host of opportunities to look at – events, branded products, third party tie-ups, endorsements. To be honest this is where a really clued in sales person would be better placed to offer insight. I’ll try and dig out a useful url…

I like to think I’ve been trying to do my best to highlight new platforms and opportunities in digital. But I admit I could do more – would appreciate your suggestions.