As AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong looks to pull his struggling Internet access business out of the doldrums, he’s investing heavily—to the tune of $40 million in Q1 of 2011 alone—in hyperlocal news operation Patch.com.
For those not in the know about Patch, it’s a community-specific news and information platform that provides local news coverage for individual towns and communities. At press time, the number of towns/communities served stands at more than 850, with editors/reporters at over 1,000. An interesting nugget on the Patch blog: there’s a new piece of original Patch content published every 12 seconds.
With those numbers, just as Armstrong is putting considerable resources into Patch (which, by the way, is run by Huffpo’s Arianna Huffington), PR pros should at least consider investing some media relations time and resources into hyperlocal outlets.
So to get a handle on pitching to Patch, and other outlets like it (see the Cheat Sheet), we spoke to PR pros and hyperlocal editors alike to explore the possibilities. In a nutshell, story placements seem promising—because although hyperlocal outlets may not have the cachet, say, of The Wall Street Journal, you’ll have more opportunity to actually place a story where it will have the most impact.
THE LOWDOWN
To put it bluntly, says Zipporah (Zippi) Dvash, assistant VP of public affairs and development at University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital, a hyperlocal story may not be as “classy” as one in the WSJ, but for her, a public affairs pro at a community hospital, it’s much more targeted and effective. Dvash sees multiple benefits to pitching to Patch, as well as to well-known Brooklyn-based news blogs, including:
• Not as much gatekeeping by editors: Many of these outlets let us post events ourselves,” she says.
• A blurred line between advertising and editorial: Editors will often get close to that line in pursuit of a story.
• Approachable reporters: Because the journalists are in the communities, it’s easy to get to know them with regular face-to-face meetings.
• Content-starved journalists: It’s been reported that Patch contributors must post five articles per day. “I’m happy to feed them content,” says Dvash.
QUALITY CONTROL
Because of the local angle, reporters’ experience might be a concern PR pros. David Reich-Hale, senior regional editor of Patch.com Long Island, concedes that while some of his local editors may have spent a decade working at a major newspaper, others are right out of college.
“You can see the differences in experience when you read editors’ bios on the Patch site,” says David Thomson, owner of PR agency Thomson Communications, based in Middletown, MA. Yet Thomson has had good success in placing stories for clients, and is satisfied with the quality of writing.
For the most part, Dvash doesn’t think hyperlocal writers are any better or worse than other journalists. Her only gripe about content is that “sometimes they are too local,” meaning stories aren’t framed into a bigger-picture context. Example: A story about a struggling community hospital doesn’t include the fact that many hospitals in the New York area are struggling, too. But, says Dvash, that lack of context is a small price to pay for the returns. Her positive take on hyperlocal journalists: they are approachable, and willing to exercise some give and take with PR.
That give and take, says Nicole Bode, senior editor at DNAInfo, a hyperlocal site serving Manhattan, stems from the reporters’ freedom to define stories they’ll pursue. “There was a more concise amount of copy you can put in print,” says Bode. With digital, she says, the opportunities are endless.
And so, it seems, are story possibilities, which often are brokered via Twitter. At least in Long Island, says Reich-Hale, all local reporters and regional editors are on Twitter, and should be followed by PR pros. Even online, there’s a decidedly local flavor. “Sometimes an editor will tweet out, ‘I’m at Starbucks, please come by and say hello,’” says Reich-Hale. For availability, that kind of shout-out can’t be beat.
REVENUE DEPRIVED
One caveat: Place your local stories while you can. While local news sites have seen plenty of hype, there’s still a small problem of revenue.
Plenty of hyperlocal Web experiments have failed over the years, including prominent efforts by mainstream media outlets like The New York Times and the Washington Post, both of which attempted to take a kind of Patch approach to local news, but failed. PRN
CONTACT:
Zipporah Dvash, [email protected]; David Reich-Hale, [email protected]; David Thomson, [email protected].