Why hyperlocal websites like New Raleigh can't make money online | News Feature | Indy Week

t started, as good ideas often do, in the back room of a bar. David Millsaps, a designer and web consultant in his mid-20s, brought together several other creative types at Mitch’s Tavern in 2007. The topic was the need for a Raleigh-focused online publication that could capture the city’s growing cool.

“You’ve got this downtown that’s just budding. Raleigh Times [Bar] had just opened. SparkCon [a collaborative downtown arts festival] was in its second year,” Millsaps says. “There was so much going on. I just thought, I want to have this website that everybody would check to find out about the coolest stuff in Raleigh.”

#SFSNYC: Think Context Not Platforms, Says Google’s Tim Reis | Street Fight

While 2012 may have been mobile’s breakout year, Tim Reis, head of mobile and social solutions at Google, urged marketers to move this year beyond platforms and instead focus on context during a morning keynote at the Street Fight Summit on Wednesday.

“Consumers are very comfortable across [multiple] platforms; they don’t silo these activities,” Reis said. “ We as marketers need to adapt and reshape how we talk to consumers” about these habits.

For Hyperlocals, How Long the Roller-Coaster Ride? | Street Fight

Last week Borrell Associates delivered an upbeat 2013 projection for a 31% increase in ad spending in the local digital space — from $18.7 million to $24.5 million, led by more small and medium-sized businesses moving a bigger share of dollars from traditional media to digital.

But even as the outlook seems brighter for local online, last week highly regarded hyperlocal editor and publisher Mike Fourcher announced he would transition from his role at the helm of his two neighborhood sites in Chicago:

“As 2012 came to a close, it became clear to me that there’s no way I could build my hyperlocal news sites, Center Square Journal and Roscoe View Journal, into something that could support me and my family. I love them, and I think our team has done some important things for the community. But honestly, I feel like I’ve learned all I can from the experience, and I need to move on.”

Howard Owens on What It Takes to Sustain a Hyperlocal News Site | Street Fight

When Street Fight co-founder David Hirschman initially spoke with Howard Owens — the  founder, editor and publisher of the independent Batavian in Upstate New York — Owens’ message was really about how indie hyperlocal news sites could create sustainability by starting to sell ads “on day one.” On our second anniversary, we asked Owens to take a new look at those same questions, and talk about how the business of indie hyperlocals has changed.

10 Months After Furor, Hyperlocal News Service Journatic Presses On | Street Fight

In April of 2012, Journatic, the for-hire community news shop, was a hot property in the hyperlocal industry. The company had struck a deal with the Chicago Tribune that put it in charge of producing all editorial content for the paper’s print and digital TribLocal network covering 78 communities in sprawling “Chicagoland.” That wasn’t all. Tribune Co. became a minority investor in privately owned Journatic, and announced that the two companies would have a “significant operating relationship going forward.”

Daily Voice bankruptcy is a setback for 'hyperlocal' news - Fortune Tech

FORTUNE — Good news! The Daily Voice, a company that produces “hyperlocal” news sites in Connecticut and suburban New York, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

OK, that’s not good news at all, but neither are layoffs. And when the company was preparing to announce mass layoffs to its staff last March, Chairman Carll Tucker sent out a memo on a Friday saying: “Monday morning we will share with you the news about where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. The news is good — but you’ll need to sit tight while we finalize our plans.” His sign-off: “I am pumped about the prospect of working with you to build a great company.”

On the following Monday, the staff learned that the company was shutting down its 11 Massachusetts sites and laying off 45 employees without severance. The company now employs just 44 people to run its 41 remaining sites, and that includes salespeople and administrative staff as well as journalists.