Hyperlocal -- where does it stop?

Names and faces. Names and faces. That's what sells papers, don'tcha know?

 

Before we went hyperlocal, what we heard from people was that we didn't have enough local news on the front and that "we can get that on CNN/ESPN/the Internet."

Now we hear how we don't have any national stories and "we have to look for news on CNN/ESPN/the Internet."

 

There's too much "telling" the sports department what to do. The sports department can run itself quite well thank you w/out some dumbass 9 to 5 managing editor thinking he has a good hylo story idea. Many ME's need to go crawl in a hole and leave SE's alone.

 

Sir, what's your opinion of drug testing in this league?

 

Sports section of my last paper did that once per week, called it "Voice of the Fan". Six or seven locals giving opinions (some informed, others not so much) on the various sports topics of the day.

Some were thought provoking, some hillarious.

If we somehow juxaposed mug shots of the participants, we'd catch hell.

 

What is my opinion of drug testing in this league!? What the fuck do you think is my opinion of it? I think it's fucking horseshit. Put that in, I don't give a fuck. What is my opinion? What the fuck do you mean, 'What is my opinion of drug testing in this league?' How could you ask me a question like that? "What is my opinion of drug testing?" Fuck. I'm fucking pissed off to fail that fucking test. And you ask me my opinion of drug testing in this league! Fuck. That's a tough question to ask me, isn't it? What is my opinion of drug testing? I mean, you want me to tell you what my opinion of drug testing is. Fuck.

 

We've tested many drugs and found they are best tested on days where we aren't going to play noon ball.
Next question...

 

So here's my related tangent.

Why don't newspapers tailor the newspaper to specific customers? ie: I tell my paper I don't care about business or lifestyle or national/international news. Don't give them to me. I'll take local news/A section, sports, classifieds.

Maybe everyone gets the A section and classifieds, but you pick and choose the rest. That way, newspaper doesn't waste the extra ink/paper, I get a product that's catered more toward what I want so I don't have to waste my time recycling extra paper. Are the logistical hurdles of this too much to overcome?

 

Fucking Gutenberg.

 

Certainly not from a digital standpoint.

 

I think I should be able to have a reporter come to my house, do a story on me and my family, with pictures of our new kitchen renovation and the dog. That's what I want to read about. Me. Is that so difficult?

 

getting back to the dow jones dropping 900 points example
Joe Blow might not be able to add much except for something like "i just lost 50 percent of my retirement," but the local stockbroker who has been in business for 25 years might have an interesting take on it. same thing with the economics professor at the local college.
A lot depends on the market and your readership. There has to be a balance, but there's nothing wrong with localizing a national story.