The Seattle Times today announced partnerships with the West Seattle Blog, Next Door Media (publisher of MyBallard.com, PhinneyWood and other sites); The Rainier Valley Post and Capitol Hill Seattle.
The Seattle Times’ move comes just a few days after Fisher Communications — publisher of KOMO-TV and KOMO Radio — launched 43 hyperlocal neighborhood news sites in the Seattle area. It also follows Msnbc.com’s purchase of EveryBlock, a Web site that offers neighborhood news in 15 cities including Seattle.
Earlier this year, the Seattle P-I shifted to an online only format and aggressively started recruiting bloggers and reporters to cover local issues in neighborhoods.
The Times partnership with the local blogs is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation. It includes four goals, according to the press release.
- Enhancing communication between the respective Web sites and The Seattle Times, and discovering ways to share news tips and collaborate on future news gathering.
- Linking to and promoting stories on partner sites when it may help fill coverage holes.
- Exploring tools that could enhance advertising opportunities across the partner sites.
- Learning about how such partnerships can benefit the respective sites.
Neighborhood news blogs have attracted followings in recent years in Seattle, in part because of their ability to tap people who live in the communities who offer news tips and foster discussion, says TechFlash.
WikiCity is one of the latest to jump on the hyperlocal bandwagon, which includes traditional news sites, blogs, and hybrids. WikiCity started in late 2008, notes Nieman Jouralism Lab, but announced itself formally this summer with local content for just more than 22,000 U.S. communities.
Portland news blogs such as Our PDX, Neighborhood Notes, Oregon Media Central, or even the sites managed by Willamette Week and Portland Mercury are wondering if they will be getting some love, too.
According to a Pew Research Center study, the tipping point occurred last year when more people in the U.S. got their news online for free than paid for it by buying newspapers and magazines.
Time Magazine’s Walter Isaacson says, “We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.
The Seattle Times was an afternoon paper for 104 years until March 6, 2000, when it switched to morning delivery to avoid the fate of other afternoon newspapers that had shut down. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, founded in 1863, stopped their print edition on March 17, 2009, when it became an online newspaper. Source: Dailywireless
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