i would agree with most of the sentiments in this post. In this Modern day it is difficult to judge exactly where hard copy is going to be in the 10 years.

The Internet has had a dramatic effect on all forms of news print and advertising media,. In some cases it has enhanced the harad copy whilst in others it has had a dramit negative effect.

So where is all this leading ?

dont know, but lets stick around and see in ten years time

Geoff Lord
http://www.hyper-advertiser.com

After having been on this rollercoaster ride of exuberance and despair for now 19 years, dating back to the early days of CD-ROM and interactive TV, we are closer than ever to the networked world that Jeff writes so eloquently about…but it’s not going to be exactly what we expect. It’s not about delivering content, it’s about having access — real, sustained access — to sources whose reputations are/will be built up over time. As we migrate from daily to real-time publications, perhaps the business model becomes about who can make the connections to make things happen, not who can write the story about what just happened.

Facebook, by opening up its API, is enabling a thousand flowers to bloom.

(…I do wonder, though, about the role of news bureaus in this vague new world. IMHO, the closure of international news bureaus leads to fewer resources who know the lay of the land and the backgrounds of the local personalities…and without their presence, and those like them, I feel we are losing the multiple points of perspective that lead to better investigative journalism. But that’s a point for another day.)

Spot on.

So we built our own. http://www.twadservices.co.uk.

And now we’re finding a market for just that type of structure – ie a hyper-local adify, doubleclick, etc – BUT with all the local trust, recognition etc that comes with having that run and serviced by the same, small town ad man that was working the local newspaper beat for 25 years.

And now, my pal who runs one of the best restaurants in the city http://www.lastwinebar.co.uk wants to embed advertising buttons/banners from his suppliers around his restaurant site with our ad network in support.

And we’ve got interest from the local music/club listings site; the University concert site, etc… local answer to a local need….

The good news is that this will be a reality soon. Demand for such a network is growing as hyperlocal and mobile media outlets – news and otherwise – come online. You can see it coming through Google, Yahoo, and even Nokia’s recent announcements and acquisitions and I speak to small companies every week who are going after the opportunity in innovative ways.

(I sold the hyperlocal site that I started, and it’s still kicking quite nicely.)

Jeff Jarvis takes the occasion of the “long-time coming closing” of backfence to talk broady about rhe Local Challenge:

Hyperlocal will not, I firmly believe, happen at one site. It will work only via networks: content, commercial, social…

First, there doesn’t appear to be enough interest at the neighborhood level to produce much user-generated content in the vast majority of places. For the moment, hyper local is a tad too local to succeed — even when you’re gathering in the content from many sources.

Second, to some extent the online community and the geographic community that co-exist in the real world may be different enough that a) the one can’t/won’t produce the right content for the other and b) the interest of the online community are just as much in learning about their digital neighbors as in learning about what street/school/fire issues will impact them.