We are seeing a rise in Hyperlocal Journalism (HLJ) as, perhaps, an alternative to the traditional local news outlets. The growing acceptance of hyperlocal as a good source of news, as well as a means of holding local authorities to account, has been exacerbated further by the planned launch of Guardian Local next year.

This level of interest from a national daily newspaper, particularly one that’s making substantial losses, in exploring hyperlocal asks a couple of questions. Undoubtedly, the Guardian will have some interest in journalism and its survival, but such is its commercial nature it would more than likely choose money over anything else. Is this sudden interest in Hyperlocal Journalism a sign that they think money could be made from hyperlocal sites? At the moment they’re talking about subsidising ‘well-qualified’ bloggers to become HLJs, but is this a step towards a new generation of local, and profitable, journalism?

Running costs for a hyperlocal site would be incredibly low – all you need is something like wordpress, an internet connection, a mobile phone and a dictaphone. Assumedly, the subsidies for HLJs would be for living costs. After all, they’ll need some kind of wage. But a lot of current HLJs are just ordinary bloggers, who already have jobs. So, the subsidy will probably not need to be the equivalent of a salary. With such low costs, profit from advertising revenue has the potential to be large.

Let’s say, hypothetically, you live in a city with a population of about 150,000 . In your particular area, there are 12,000 people. Market your site well, and cover things like what their council representative is doing, local events that would go uncovered by the generic local newstitle, and other community issues – you could get a pretty big monthly hit-count to your site, opening up the potential for advertising revenue. Insignificant to a national daily newspaper?

Well, we can see that the Guardian is testing the water with Guardian Local. If they see a success in the trialled websites, and that profits can be made – why not do it in as many towns and cities as they can? The subsidies for HLJs can be in exchange for a chunk of the advertising revenue each month. As mentioned above, with such low running costs the potential for profit is very good.

The Guardian have got in on Hyperlocal Journalism early, but their competitors will be watching closely. If the plan works, we could see a lot of bandwagon- jumping and an ‘arms race’, if you like, as they scale the country snapping up communities. There would be no market for competition in areas already covered by a hyperlocal site (provided it’s kept up to date and looked after well), so once you’re in a community you will monopolise it.

Is this the future of local journalism? If so, it will certainly be the death of local newspapers.