In the April/May 2007 issue of the American Journalism Review, contributing writer Donna Shaw examines the efforts of Gannett and other media companies to create, market, and make money on "hyperlocal" websites, which Shaw describes as the "Neighbors sections of newspapers...on steroids."Shaw writes: There's no official definition, but generally a hyperlocal news site (also known as local-local or microsite) is devoted to the stories and minutiae of a particular neighborhood, ZIP code or interest group within a certain geographic area. Such sites have been springing up on the Internet for some time now, initially as independent startups, created and maintained as labors of love by founders who work on a shoestring budget (see Drop Cap, December/January). Other sites are making money (although generally not a lot) by offering inexpensive advertising space for local businesses--the mom-and-pop restaurants, dry cleaners and crafts shops that can't afford to advertise in citywide publications. Some hyperlocal sites have content produced at least in part by paid, professional journalists. Many others don't. It's a development that has captured the attention of large media companies, which are on the prowl for opportunities to create revenue streams and lure readers, and has spurred a number of them to start experimenting. In addition to offering blanket coverage of a community, the approach can help journalists build stronger relationships with readers, who contribute ideas and expertise. But it also has the potential to trivialize a media organization's brand and further saturate news sites with myopic local (and frequently unedited) content, perhaps at the expense of foreign and national reporting. To keep that from happening, the hyperlocal approach necessitates care and thoughtfulness, according to John S. Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun. He sees it as "well worth exploring" but difficult to deliver in terms of matching the quality of the primary news product. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but if it's executed without sufficient investment, it will hurt the paper and harm society," he says. When Carroll arrived in Los Angeles in 2000, the Times was publishing neighborhood inserts called "Our Times," which stressed local news but, to his mind, diminished the L.A. Times. "People perceived the paper to be a large, sophisticated metropolitan paper, and within that paper, they were receiving these fairly shoddily edited and shoddily reported neighborhood papers, which led to a dissonance," he says. "People read it and said, 'What kind of paper is this?'" Rob Curley, the hyperlocal guru who in October joined Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive as vice president of product development, thinks newspapers can tackle these projects while maintaining quality..."Journalists hold the papers like the Washington Post up as, 'This is what great reporting looks like.' But if you live in Washington, this is your local paper," he says. "So covering local stories is an honorable profession." If it takes hold, the hyperlocal movement means some fundamental, groundbreaking changes in the way traditional journalism is conducted. Many media chains are beefing up their online local ventures, but in terms of sheer numbers of news-papers involved, no one is moving more aggressively than Gannett. The nation's largest chain by circulation (90 daily newspapers, including USA Today) will roll out its "local information center" approach division-wide by May 1. The shift reorganizes reporters and editors into a 24-7, multiplatform operation and invites readers to be among its eyes and ears...Click here to read Shaw's article in its entirety on the AJR website.