Is the hyper-local news bubble getting ready to burst

There is a lot of excitement amongst journalists and publishers about the opportunity of hyper-local newspapers and websites but is this sudden lurch to small news sustainable?

The publishing trade press, desperate for a good news story, is all too keen to highlight the successes of hyper-local titles such as Richmondshire Today, West Kirby Today and The Tarporley News – a paper that actually boasts that it is the smallest print news title in the UK.

The moves by many journalists, who have found themselves facing redundancy from larger news publishers or are unwilling to lower their journalistic standards to match the clickbait style reporting so many local titles now expect, should of course be applauded for their entrepreneurial efforts to create new hyperlocal news sources. However, urging fellow journalists to take the plunge might just be their undoing.

Hyperlocal news publishers tend to be very small operations, employing a couple of journalists and, very occasionally, a salesperson. It’s only because they are small, keep their costs down and operate in areas where they is little or no competition, they are able to survive. These new hyperlocal operators will probably be well aware that their businesses will never make them rich. They are lifestyle businesses at the very best.

With so many regional journalists finding themselves in difficult situations with local newsrooms closing, merging and being totally disrupted by modern business practices, the prospect of increased competition, even for tiny hyperlocal titles, is on the very near horizon.

When any business is operated on a shoestring, it’s highly unlikely the owner is capable of surviving a sustainable war of attrition for too many weeks. When two hyperlocal titles are forced to go head to head, sharing the same news stories, the same distribution networks and the same advertisers – they are both highly likely to fail.

In this respect, hyperlocal news publishers face the same challenges that bigger publishers must overcome. They need to invest in content that readers (and not just advertisers) are willing to pay for, they need to adapt new business models and they need to grow their businesses so, if and when competition comes knocking, they are strong enough to survive.

Until this happens, I fear that the hyperlocal news business is just a bubble getting ready to burst.