Eight new hyperlocal and community news sites from across the United States have received grants from New Voices, an incubator established by the J-Lab Institute for Interactive Journalism, to help fund hyperlocal, micro-local and community news ventures. This year's recipients are:
GrossePointToday.com will provide seed money to Wayne State University's journalism program, which has recently recruited 20 downsized, retired, and available journalists, to write and edit content provided by citizen contributors and online journalism students from WSU and University of Michigan-Dearborn. The site will cover Detroit's five Grosse Points and will also receive a 30 percent commission from advertising sold by "The Little Blue Book" community directory.
Oakland Local will employ mobile services along with its daily-updated website to cover news across Oakland, CA's many neighborhoods. An editor, publisher and three part-time reporters will work with citizen contributors to cover environment, climate, transportation, housing, local government and community activism. This site will also be geotaggingtagging content and encouraging citizens to use a varimobiel mobiel and social networking tools to report news. Mernit Mernit, one of Placeblogger's advisors, is part of this project.
Backyard News - A former newspaper reporter and founder of the Linglestown (Pa.) Gazette will expand his model to develop a network of four to six independently operated hyperlocal Web sites, to be updated daily, for communities in suburban Harrisburg, Pa. BThe project will also seek to create partnerships with the region's tv and radio stations and seek to deliver news content to cell phones.
Maryland School Information Mapping Towson University’s Center for Geographic Information Sciences wTowsonrtner with the online public policy site MarylandCommons.com will create a Web tool that will combine MarMarylandCommonst of Education data with user-friendly geomapping. The site will deliver to parents, educators, policy makers and journalists data and news about K-12 schools at the local, county and state level. Maps generated will complement news and commentary written by Commons staff and citizen journalists.
Intersections: The South Los Angeles Reporting Project Using multi-media reporting by journalism students and the community, the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California will cAnnenbergcommunity news Web site for a region that is home to African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and immigrants. This project will also partner with the student-run Annenberg Radio and Television Stations as well as Mobile VoicesAnnenbergtelling platform designed to help low-wage immigrants create mobile content.
The Austin Bulldog a longtime Austin-based journalist and founder of a magazine and political newsletter, will create a daily-updated Web site for public-interest and investigative reporting, using both professional journalists and input from citizens. The site will also process other news stories in addition to its own original reporting and citizen commentary.
New Era Media A foundation based in Boulder, CO will start a blog covering Colorado news and politics aimed at young people. Initial content will come from 10 "citizen contributors" (ages 17-30), who will research, develop and post stories. Community contributions will also be invited. In addition, the site will develop feeds that can be posted to Facebook profiles and other social networking applications.
The Villager, News and Notes from Coconut Grove West - A visual journalism professor from the University of Miami will launch a community news site for one of Florida’s oldest, but newly gentrifying, communities. News stories and visual documentaries will be generated by partners, which include journalism students, the Coconut Grove Collaborative (http://www.cgcollaborative.org/), the CG Homeowners Association (HOATA), a local health clinic and local residents.
Congratulations to all the grant recipients and best of luck to them in their new ventures!
If you are interested in receiving grant money to help your hyperlocal start-up, consider applying for one of next year's New Voices grants. There is another program, The McCormick Foundation's New Media Women Entrepreneurs, which awards grants to women seeking to create hyperlocal ventures. Also check out the Knight Citizens News Network's new new module on limiting legal risk in citizen ventures
as well as other great information on starting a hyperlocal site offered by the
J-lab Institute for Interactive Journalism.
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