I'd like to share something with you. Something that has made me very happy. Something, in fact, about sheep. This sheep, in particular:
You see, this "tup", as the livestock breeders call 'em, was sold for a staggering £230,000 yesterday, a story that's being covered from the BBC to the Daily Mail. But where was it broken?
On the Farmer's Weekly livestock and sales blog, that's where. But it was the above photo that really got the commenters going.
I mention this, both because I think it's a fun story, and because I think that blog in particular illustrates something that I think is missed in much thinking about the future of news. We keep talking about hyperlocal, and that's a thought process that's rooted in the geographic nature of most newspaper circulations, particularly in the US. What our experience in RBI is teaching us is that hyperlocal is just a subset of hyperniche - and that there are many niches calling our for good, community-focused journalism.
Something to chew on over the bank holiday weekend. With some mint sauce.
Adam, Surely hyperlocal and hyperniche are distinct, rather than one being a subset of the other?
This story is hyperniche but it appeals to 'any' farmer whereas a story of the rubbish collection on the Old Kent Road is only of very local interest.
I'm a tad baffled by all the interest in hyperlocal as most places simply don't have enough of interest to support a hyperlocal news feed, for example. There is a reason local papers are dying, especially in the US - they're just plain boring with nothing to say. A digital feed of boring is still boring.
Hyperniche is altogether more interesting. Depth of information will eventually win the day. Why is BusinessWeek going bust when the Economist is thriving ? Deep, deep information...with attitude against just a rehash of everyday 'business' news.
What a 'Tup' though.
Regards
Antony
antonys@glasnost21.com
www.glasnost21.com
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I suspect that we're dangerously close to arguing semantics on this one.
To me, hyperniche is the umbrella, under which you could have -local, -topic, -personal, etc...
The overall theme is that online publishing tends to work best in niches, whatever the basis of the niche, in stark contrast to conventional publishing, which needed (fairly) mass markets.
Pulling our leg, Adam?