…As larger news publications cut the size of their staffs and print circulations as their ad revenues deflate and their audiences migrate to online, they’ve pulled back on local coverage. The one area of growth has been on the hyperlocal level, as smaller publications and blogs pop up to fill in the cracks that have opened in the coverage of larger, daily newspapers. Various estimates say there are anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 hyperlocal news blogs and 17,000 independent community newspapers in the country.
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The niche of hyperlocal publications became [Dick O’Hare of Local Yokel Media’s] focus after stints with DoubleClick, AOL Media Networks and Yahoo Inc. over the years. What he realized, he said, were opportunities to improve how an ad reaches its intended audience.
The company has both a supply and demand arm to its business model. First, it aggregates a list of hyperlocal websites, blogs and the sites of community newspapers, and then organizes them by ZIP code. Then, it matches up advertisers with publications based on the intended audience, going further than simple “geo-targeting” of an audience in a certain geographic location.
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“In essence, what we are building is a marketplace,” O’Hare said, adding that working with hyperlocals gives a more authentic approach to sales. “We think hyperlocal publishers are pillars of their communities.”
For more, read the full text of Mark Lungariello’s article from the Fairfield County Business Journal.Related articles
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