Few months back, an article on local news caught my attention..
Though the article was about Substack, it got me thinking about Local News experience in the west, especially US
But, first a quick look at some parts of the Vox.com article
Your local newspaper is dying. Can newsletters replace it?
Substack wants to pay you to write about local news
But back to local news, which has been in a steadily worsening crisis for the last 20 years, via a vicious cycle: The internet has steadily stripped away local news outlets’ advertising revenue, which leads to newsroom cutbacks, which leads to weakened products, which leads to declining audiences, which leads to more revenue losses. Repeat.
While the above was a comment on the Substack program, there was Patch.com about a decade back which was acquired by AOL and later hived off as a separate business. A WSJ article talked about Patch.com in 2016:
Patch sites also aggregate posts from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook which are relevant to local communities, and operate bulletin boards to which users can post information about local events and other announcements.
Mr. Armstrong said this approach might help explain why Patch now generates more traffic with fewer editors than it did under AOL’s control.
“The first version of Patch was very much local journalism, whereas the new version is more of a social, mobile and alerts platform,” he said.
But the Pandemic years seem to have brought some good news to Patch. Below is from a Apr 2020 article in Axios
The big picture: The company, which just finished its fourth profitable year, is trying to figure out ways to give back during the pandemic.
It's recently made some of its paid products for businesses (featured classifieds and promoted calendar events) free to local businesses in its communities.
What's next: St. John says Patch is working on a beta to support local reporters who want to start their own local news publications.
With all this happening how can Google be far behind... It has launched a program in India with an eye on local news
Applications open today for GNI Startups Lab -- a four-month program that seeks to help independent local or single-subject journalism organizations find a pathway to financial and operational sustainability through intensive coaching, skills training and other support.
Interesting times ahead for people working on "Local" as a theme :-)
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