E-Media Tidbits

Boston.com Boston.com's beta local search service offers rich community context. (Click to see more.)

Hyperlocal news (at the town or neighborhood level) faces a substantial challenge: It's often not easy to find, especially online. However, local and hyperlocal news and information is likely to be a core strength as news organizations evolve and search for stronger business models.

Boston.com has adopted a pretty good approach to making its local content more easily findable via its "our picks" search results. I don't know when exactly they started this feature, but it's worth noting -- and possibly emulating.

Try it out: On the Boston.com home page, you'll see the site search engine on the top left. Make sure the "Greater Boston" tab is selected, then enter the name of any town in the Boston area -- like, for instance, Andover, Mass.

The search results page you'll get will bear the header "Local search." At the top is a map showing the location of the town and then links to database-driven information relevant to the town: business listings, restaurant listings, travel guide, homes for sale, job listings, a community overview, and Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) results for relevant school districts. And, of course, there are links to Boston Globe stories about the town -- not just any stories that mention the town, but stories selected for special relevance about the town.

According to The Local Insider (an excellent blog for following innovations in local news, by the way), at this week's Newspaper Association of America Marketing conference Boston.com VP Robert Kempf said he is "under no illusion that notices of a hockey schedule or clever article links will make the site a default search engine over Google or Yahoo. But ...the effort could extend the newspaper's mission in a way that the search engines probably won't. And that should translate to more effective local advertising."

Next step? I'd love to see Boston.com partner with nontraditional local and hyperlocal news sources -- especially citizen journalism venues, blogs, podcasts, and forums. Why not list the best ones (such as Lisa Williams' H20town, covering Watertown, Mass.) and index their content? More local coverage, commentary, and color might provide even greater incentive for local advertisers and subscribers to pony up with cash -- which would support and motivate everyone involved, I'd think.