Posted by jessdrkn on April 3, 2010
Location: Ithaca, New York 
Focus: the “Ithaca Indy” independent community news outlet serving Ithaca, in upstate New York; information categories include City, Life, Crime, Business, Sports, Opinion, Resources
Started: January 2010
Staff: founded by Ed Sutherland, a 20-year journalist; request for contributors
Site: ithacaindy.com
From About:
The goal is to bring news coverage closer to the citizens through numerous avenues, including Twitter and Facebook. Although we embrace modern technology, we remain steadfast in publishing quality journalism, following traditional practices. This is not a blog, where commentary mixes with fact. Nor is it an amateurish enterprise. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and hope our readers will keep us on our toes. Opinion is limited to the opinion pages.
Sample stories: “Ithaca Police Make Check Forgery Arrest”; “Ithaca College Names Park School Dean”; “‘Shock Doctrine’ Author to Visit Ithaca”; “Ithaca Elementary School Among Food SafetyViolators”; “Airport Receives $336k FAA Grant”
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Posted in New York | Tagged: community news, hyperlocal, Ithaca Independent, Ithaca Indie, New York | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on March 23, 2010
Location: Missoula, Montana 
Focus: regional online news magazine about Rocky Mountain news, issues, politics, culture; coverage area includes Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, other Western interior locations; community blogs, news roundups from national outlets, original and contributed content
Started: 2005
Staff: about 20, including publisher, editor-in-chief, contributing writers; news partners with other outlets such as DailyYonder, Crosscut, Flathead Beacon
Funding: advertising, conferences; business is New West Publishing LLC
Site: newwest.net
From About Us:
New West.Net is a nationally-award-winning, online network covering and connecting the fastest-growing region in the country with a refreshing mix of daily news, original reportage, commentary, photography, video, music and conversation. NewWest.Net includes a regional Front Page, and local sites in eight communities around the region…
Sample posts: “Western pols quick to denounce passage of health care bill”; “Conservation icon Stewart Udall dies”; “In the mountains, is modern design the right style?”; “Strategy offers hope in beetle battle”
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Posted in Montana | Tagged: Colorado, Idaho, LLC, Montana, New West, regional news, Rocky Mountains, rural news, Utah | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on March 18, 2010
Location: Philadelphia 
Focus: hyperlocal information for 30 neighborhoods in the northeast corner of Philadelphia
Started: November 2008
Staff: founded by Shannon McDonald, while a student at Temple University; contributing writers
You don’t have to be an experienced writer to contribute to the site. We want active, involved residents with a passion for their neighborhood. Are you a block captain? A stay-at-home parent with active kids? Someone who loves to socialize and try new things? Do you like taking photos of things you see in your daily routine? NEast Philly is a place for people to read about and experience the real Northeast Philadelphia.
Business: started online, print magazine planned for spring 2010
Site: neastphilly.com
From About:
NEastPhilly.com is the online home of Northeast Philadelphia. Launched in November 2008, NEastPhilly is maintained by a collection of local residents who live and breathe Northeast Philadelphia. The site offers daily news, analysis, multimedia, columns and commentary on everything that interests the proud, working-class neighborhoods of The NEast. NEastPhilly.com is the only place for daily news exclusively about the Northeast.
Sample posts: “News briefs from the Lawn Crest Community Association”; “Contractor dies near Frankford workspace”; “Real NEastate: Selling to another Seller” (a Q&A about selling a home in the neighborhood); “”Diamonds stolen from Franklin Mills Mall” a linked report to the Philadelphia Inquirer; “Man killed by train identified”
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Posted in Pennsylvania | Tagged: community news, NEast Philly, Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on March 15, 2010
Location: Louisville 
Focus: “Covering Louisville neighborhoods”; blog started as an observation on downtown development, has grown to cover community news in several city neighborhoods. Original, contributed and curated content shape editorial. Site features: See.Click.Fix and map of blog posts by neighborhood
Started: 2006
Staff: edited by Brendan Klayko
Business: advertisement funding
Site: brokensidewalk.com
From Home page:
Here, we report on and discuss neighborhood news in Louisville, Kentucky. Any given day, we might be talking about real estate development, transportation, architecture, urbanism, or the nitty gritty of urban life. Please join in the conversation, or learn more about Broken Sidewalk and the stories we cover here. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to our RSS Feed (it’s easy). Thanks for stopping by.
From About:
Broken Sidewalk (BS) is dedicated to the urban realm of the River City, from its neighborhoods to its transportation trends, from real estate happenings to the latest political struggle. The blog was founded in 2006 as a small site documenting the development of downtown Louisville. Since then, brokensidewalk.com has grown to cover the goings on of the greater metropolitan region. We are dedicated to reporting the latest real-estate deal, the most up-to-date project announcements, transportation trends, and all the neighborhood news related to living in our fine city. We follow the ongoing construction progress of exciting development projects and slip in a little of the latest rumor about the future of the city.
…
BS is more than a news source; its a dialogue. What makes brokensidewalk.com work is the input from our community of users. This site has been designed to encourage as much interaction as possible. Each post carries your comments and opinion polls track the pulse of the latest hot topics. Our community also helps run the site.
Sample posts: “Livable Louisville Forum Set for March 30″; “Demo Watch: Spalding Gym Half Way Gone”; “Wednesday News Roundup” (a collection of links to city news from other news outlets); “Creation Gardens Moving Forward on East Market Street”
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Posted in Kentucky | Tagged: blog, community news, curated content, downtown, Kentucky, Louisville, original content | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on February 28, 2010
Location: Louisville 
Focus: local and community news hub for Louisville; original and aggregated content; current events, local topics of discussion, forums, curated content; 29 forum topics, 14 news and information categories, mostly arts and leisure, calendar events, human interest, opinion; member blogs section
Started: 2003, as community BBS system
Staff: 8 full-time, one part-time and 12 contractors; solicits user-generated content
Funding: owned by Metromojo LLC, a company specializing in online information platforms. Louisville Mojo is the most popular website in Kentucky, according to Nielsen engagement rankings cited by Louisville Mojo officials. The site served more than 25 million page views to over 155,000 unique visitors in January 2010; average time on site was over 25 minutes, MetroMojo LLC chief technology officer Chuck Burke said.
Site: louisvillemojo.com
From About (Metromojo):
We are a company with roots in the electronic bulletin board (BBS) days of the Internet. Our founders were developing powerful technology applications prior to the existence of the WWW. Skip forward a decade….2003. Louisville Mojo was launched as a portfolio piece and its wild growth shocked us all. In early 2004, we realized that the traction of our first online community represented a more dramatic and global change in how media is produced and consumed. Today, Louisville Mojo serves a significant audience. In the course of managing and monetizing our own local online community, we have contributed to the development of a powerful niche within the social media industry: local online community.
The company has received initial funding from Lunsford Capital and Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation.
Mr. Burke:
98% of what you see [on Louisville Mojo]… is produced and managed by our editorial team, run by Rick Redding, a long-time journalist here in Louisville, Kentucky, who cut his teeth in publications such as Business First and the Courier Journal.
If you venture beyond the homepage into our “channels” you will begin to find more user generated content. In addition to this, we have forums, photo galleries, classifieds, etc.
We are a commercial operation, the majority of our revenues comes from advertising with a small percentage of it coming from “supporting member” accounts, which offer members a few additional features on the web site.
Sample posts, information: “The Bible, sex-ed and Frankfort priorities” (an opinion piece by staff writer); “What are the BonAire/Highgate neighborhood groups doing now?”; “LMPD’s Crystal Marlow will plead the fifth”; “Paul fires back in senate race”; “UPDATE: Restaurant to be baby friendly…Mojo makes a difference”; “Trashy novels, Sports Illustrated and your kids”
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Posted in Kentucky | Tagged: community news, forums, Kentucky, local, Louisville, Louisville Mojo, Louisvillemojo.com, Mojomedia LLC | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on February 20, 2010
Location: Chicago 
Focus: “Community News. Evolved.”; neighborhood news for Mt. Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park; news, opinion, calendar, forums, chat rooms
Started: March 2007
Staff: Michael Fielding, editor, journalism degree and background; Steve Delmont, publisher, formerly in print publishing; solicitation for contributed content and blogs
Funding: advertising; site is associated with Romeii LLC, of Wisconsin
Site: southwestobserver.com
From About:
The Observer is a new community newspaper without the paper. Every day we’ll post news items pertinent to you and your community.And every day we’ll ask you to participate. Got a gripe? Air it in the forums. Planning a block party? Start a blog and keep everyone up to date. Register with us, and you can comment on the stories we post, or you can comment on the posts of your neighbors.
Sample stories: “Keller to stay put, Mt. Greenwood school to expand”; “Community alert for attempted kidnapping”; “Obama’s bookstore book signing this Saturday”; “Keller meeting for parents only”
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Posted in Illinois | Tagged: advertising, Chicago, community news blog, Illinois, LLC, Southwest Observer, SouthwestObserver.com | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on February 20, 2010
Location: Battle Creek, Michigan 
Focus: “Everybody has a hand in thinking”; a neighborhood blog — community events coverage, crime updates
Started: June 2008
Staff: founded and edited by resident Laura Adams; contributor solicitation
Funding: no apparent traditional funding (advertising, grants)
Site: villagethinker.wordpress.com
From About:
The Village Thinker is a community news resource. The Village Thinker is the new media. It is an Internet news source, but it isn’t an electronic newspaper. Yet.
Print is dead, I went to the funeral almost 10 years ago. It was nice, CNN sent a beautiful wreath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t considered news. Most likely because it coincided with the christening of the Internet as the New Media.
The Village Thinker exists because we have no unfiltered crime and gang-related news in our community, and people are tired of reading propaganda that is sanitized for our protection. Or for the protection of the people who need to cover up what they did wrong. We are tired of being kept in the dark.
The Village Thinker is underground news, because even a small town needs an underground media outlet.
Sample posts: “Second bank robbery this month”; “Crimewatch committed to continuing the struggle”; “IFPTI receives substantial funding in 2011 Federal budget”; “Ann J. Kellogg students Stomp for Peace”
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Posted in Michigan | Tagged: Battle Creek, community news blog, hyperlocal, Michigan, neigborhood | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on February 15, 2010
Location: Burien, Washington (10 miles south of Seattle) 
Focus: local news and information around Burien, community news; information categories include arts, entertainment, features stories, crime, events, headlines, humor, jobs, opinion, life
Started: 2008
Staff: Scott Shaefer is founder, publisher, editor; plus 8 staff, including writer/marketing person, two reporters, photographer, intern
Funding: LLC business LOLDudez.com, a network of five other local blogs; heavy local advertising, business promotion
Site: b-townblog.com
From About:
We love Burien. And we’re not ashamed to say it.
That’s because we live here.
We work here.
We shop here.
The B-Town (Burien) Blog is your only daily-updated, totally independent, truly-local online news source for all things Burien-related…
Sample posts: “Hit & Run Victim Jeff Kearney Released From Rehab, Now Back Home”; “B-Town Undercover: A Burienite Makes Friends At The Winter Olympics”; “Councilmember Refutes Seattle Times Columnist Over White Center Annexation”; “Wine & Food Line-Ups Announced For Poverty Bay Wine Festival”
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Posted in Washington state | Tagged: advertising, B-town Blog, blog network, Burien, community news, hyperlocal, LLC, LOLDudez, Seattle area, washington | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on January 21, 2010
Location: Chicago 
Focus: “Your Definitive Neighborhood Guide to North Center, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood Manor”; information categories include News, Restaurants, Neighborhoods, 1,000 Words, Events, Submissions
Started: Jan. 20, 2010
Staff: writers/editors/founders Patrick Boylan and Mike Fourcher; solicitations for contributed content
Funding: advertising
Site: centersquareledger.com
From About:
The Center Square Ledger is a news publication focusing exclusively on Chicago’s Lincoln Square, North Center and Ravenswood Manor neighborhoods. It’s published by two guys, Mike and Patrick, from the neighborhood with deep Chicago roots. We launched this publication because we believed that our communities have a great deal going on – we want to tell those stories.
We also believe that many of the stories going on in our communities need to be told by you. Perhaps there’s something going on in your neighborhood you’d like to tell. Maybe you want to write the story yourself in the Ledger.
Sample stories: “Lincoln Square Chamber membership elects 3 members to board; Membership tiers now based on benefit use, not employee size”; “Early voting in Lincoln Square and Northcenter short of 2008 pace”; “Our Lady of Lourdes undertakes cause of immigration reform”; “Local carpenter invents water barrel platform; get pressure and use out of your barrel”
Media mentions: Chicagotalks write-up: “Center Square Ledger offers news from Francisco to Addison”
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Posted in Illinois | Tagged: advertising, Chicago, community news, contributed content, hyperlocal news, Illinois | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jessdrkn on January 20, 2010
Location: Nashville 
Focus: “A blog about Nashville”; little original content, mostly news links roundups to content (local and statewide) or posts incorporating content from elsewhere, i.e. hybrid stories; information categories include News, Culture & Arts, Food & Drink, Music City, Sports
Started: May 2008
Staff: 2 editors — Christy Fink and Morgan Levy; guest bloggers; contributed content
Funding: advertising
Site: nashvillest.com
From About:
In Nashville, we have it great. We’re a stone’s throw from Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Asheville, Birmingham, Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinatti, St. Louis, even Chicago. We live in a vibrant and diverse city with no shortage of dining and entertainment options. Our city is rich with historical significance and quirky landmarks. Here at Nashvillest, we’re aiming high – We’re giving Nashville the respect it deserves. We’re more than just a city with deep country music roots – We’re bloggers, geeks, hipsters, zombies, sports fiends, actors, agriculturists, history buffs, artists, art enthusiasts, animal lovers, coffee drinkers, concertgoers, activists, parents, students, outdoor adventurers, marathon runners, music lovers, photographers, sushi eaters – and of course, musicians and tourists. And more.
Nashvillest is here to bridge the gap. Yes, we’ll be at the Twitter meetup (we’re huge Twitter geeks), but we’ll also be at the Sounds game and at Movies In The Park with our friends. We’ll also try the new Krayp Kafe and maybe swing by Fat Straw or Gigi’s Cupcakes for dessert, so we can give you a heads up on what to expect. And we’re going to let you know when everything happens, because we died a little inside when we heard about the presidential candidates coming to town… after they were gone. Our mission is to never let that happen again.
We told you we were aiming high.
Sample posts: “Bright and Early: Neck and Neck Edition” news links roundup; “Happy Hour: Sunny Side Up” links roundup; “Seven Shows for Seven Years: Happy Birthday Mercy Lounge”; “Remember MLK with Free Frist Center Day”; “Cheekwood Returns to Roots with $.50 Admission in January”
Other: promotional links to independent news sites Knoxify.com in Knoxville, and Chattarati.com in Chattanooga
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Posted in Tennessee | Tagged: advertising, city news, community news, Nashville, Tennessee | Leave a Comment »
