Mar
17

Hyperlocal journalism: What’s in a name?

6 Comments

blogs Hyperlocal journalism: Whats in a name?One of the first things that ran through my mind when wanting to start a hyperlocal website was the name.

Arguably without it you cannot start to build a site, a community, nor a team of contributors.

After some deliberation, my colleague Jo Stashko and I settled on the name ‘My Preston’, and whizzed off to buy a domain name, design a logo and draw up a press release to raise awareness of our plans.

Shortly after doing so, Jo and I were asked to take on the editorship of Blog Preston – an already established local website for the city, with an audience, contributors and a ever-developing brand.

Fast forward 10 months, and here we are. The site is brimming with content, we have a consistent team of contributors, and all is looking rosy.

So why the post, you may wonder?

I recently tried to add Blog Preston to the ‘media’ section on Preston, Lancashire’s Wikipedia page – but not all went to plan.

Within seconds of adding “Preston also has a hyperlocal news site, Blog Preston, a site for community news, views and information about the city”, it was removed, as a moderator deemed it unacceptable.

The user, ‘Dr Greg’ ruled “Sorry, blog sites don’t count as “media”’.

Many hyperlocal websites are referred to as ‘blogs‘, but what does the assumption that they are run in the same way a blog is have on their reputation?

While it is clear how someone who has never seen the site could think it’s simply a blog, given its name, the idea that our site gives the impression that it is run in the way that Andrew Marr sees bloggers, as angry, socially-inadequate young men in our mothers’ basements is not a good thing.

When I posted what had happened on Twitter, I got a good range of responses:

After some fellow Wikipedia users caught wind of my questioning of the removal and had a quick Google, they agreed that the site was ‘somewhere in between blog and newspaper website’ and that Blog Preston seemed ‘perfectly legitimate and indeed more informative than most, if not all, of the local newspapers’.

A win for Blog Preston and hyperlocal media, but how important is the name of a site?

Are we shooting our site in the foot by calling ourselves a ‘blog’?

How potentially damaging could a name change be to a site that has been running for two years and has built up a community?

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How did you come to decide your site’s name? Would changing the name of your site be as good as starting again?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Posted in Journalism
6 Comments Posted by Andy Halls

6 Responses to "Hyperlocal journalism: What’s in a name?"

  • Philip John says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:27 am

    The problem here is with perception. People see “blog” and immediately assume, as you say, a spotty, bedroom-based ranter.

    This is wrong and as you have done we should challenge these perceptions. I mentioned in my post this morning that the Guardian’s choice of “beatblogger” to describe the reporters on their local reporters is a recognition of the role both local bloggers and traditional local journalists play. The beatblogger is an amalgamation of the two.

    That said, after two years of being called The Lichfield Blog we are actively considering new names. We’ve come up against those perceptions in trying to get funding to move forward. If it was anyone else I’d be saying “no, stick to your name – challenge those perceptions” but we need to be realistic and consider the longer term.

  • Siraj says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:50 am

    I founded The Student Journals (http://thestudentjournals.co.uk) a little while ago and have had so many question the name, including MPs so perhaps I made a mistake. However, my idea was that a journal is a diary but it also somewhere for people to express their own opinion (not necessarily just about their daily lives).

    And of course, student because it’s the idea that it’s an online magazine for students. Not doing too badly though – check it out:)

  • John Coster says:
    March 17, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    I started Citizens Eye over 3 years ago. It’s called a community news agency & we have 14 smaller news agencies covering specific sectors – all run by volunteers.
    People refer to our ‘website’ but it’s actually a a word press blog!

  • william perrin says:
    March 17, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    I had a similar problem with kingscrossenvironment.com and the wikipedia entry for kings cross. knee jerk deletion of an entry. the editor clearly didn’t even look at the site which was sefl evidently the biggest web resources about the area. though wikipedia did and still does inexplicably link to an awful kings cross website with effectively no content in it.

    in the end i found out that one of my contributors to kingscrossenvironment had some form editing wikipedia articles and she sorted it out.

    wikipedia editors of course always have to be vigilant against self promoters and PRs, their volunteer job isn’t always easy. but often local place pages in the UK disappoint – not enough people interested in curating them. experiences such as yours and mine hardly make you want to get stuck in to making them better.

  • Martin Reeves says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    Probably the best decision we ever made with our local sites was to go for the exact match domain for the places we cover. Our site for Alderley Edge is alderleyedge.com and for Wilmslow we use wilmslow.co.uk. Having the exact match domain seems to give instant credibility and the audience have an instant affinity with the brand.

    It has also made it easier to access people and obtain information because they see us as “official”. For example last year we had no problem obtaining a press pass from Clarence House to take photos during a royal visit. However, there is a down side – because some local residents see us as official we are inundated with emails and demands. People seem to see us as a public service which is accountable to them.

    Having the exact match domain also gives you a big advantage when it comes to SEO. As an example, wilmslow.co.uk is comfortably above the local rag which has been around offline and online substantially longer when someone searches in Google for ‘Wilmslow’.

    Plus we’ve not had any problems getting them listed on Wikipedia.

    Getting the exact match domain might cost a bit of money but it will pay for itself many times over if you’re in it for the long haul.

  • links for 2011-03-18 « Onlinejournalismtest's Blog says:
    March 18, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    [...] Hyperlocal journalism: What's in a site's name? | andyhalls.net The user, ‘Dr Greg’ ruled “Sorry, blog sites don’t count as “media”’. [...]

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